The New York herald., 1921-09-11

they are not capable Of handling them
with somewhat more skill than Mr..
Smith or Miss Hurst has shown.
| What playwright Of reliable powers
might have accomplished, is Of course
another matter. Possibly the worst
that such failure as the two play.
wrights have made will be the con-
viction that after all there is nothing
in the situation" The best corrective
for that sort Of delusion is visit
to six Cylinder Love-"
| Miss Atkins Goes n-Hunting.
Arthur Hopkins never showed
| greater skill as a manager Of actors
than he did in training Miss Marjorie
Rambeau to play her role in "Daddy's
| Gone az Hunting" Miss Rambeau,
who never possessed any special
subtlety4 or penetrating fineness had
! grown hammered and artificial to de-
gree that seriously threatened her
charm. Her habit of repeating a
phrase to herself after she had spoken
1t aloud, her appearance of cogitating
every assertion that she or one or
her colleagues made, grew monotonous.
Then there could be no Illusion in the
face of such marked popularity.
Mr.. Hopkins has apparently re-
moved all these vexatious habits. She
is sincere and natural again. Such a
product as Miss Rambeau as little
complex as a beautiful garden rose,
not reflective. cerebral or especially
analytical. acts now as one would ex-
pect such untramelled loveliness to
act.
While Mr.. Hopkins's skill has been
of undeniable benefit to the actress II
is by no means sure that the change
in her method Is a benefit to Miss
Akins's play.
"Daddy's Gone Hunting" treats
in. the terms of New York at the
present day of the same theme that
D'Annunzio used in "Gioconda" and
Hauptmann in "Die versunkene
Glocke." But this artistic hero loves
| neither model nor dryad. II he
| loves anybody 1t is the fashionable
patroness who lifted him above the
drudgery of commercial art.
| But 1t is the character Of the wife
which. like the heroine of "Trancilon,"
Is more important. She lives to see
L.
Her husband confesses his own un-
worthiness and. as 1t were. resigns.
The man who would prove his devo-
ton to her she is unable to make up
her mind to accept. Thus she is left
at the end of the play alone.
| Here is what might also have been
called a situation" at other times.
But the playwrights who have dealt
with this theme hitherto never have,
been satisfied with the condition that
ends Miss Akins's play. They prob
ably rejected II as altogether undra-
matte. In life such a complication
might well have come about But even
then II would never have been consid-
cred dramatic. In spite of the doc
trines Of the new dramatists. life can
not always be made dramatic even on
the stage.
So the lot OF the woman left alone,
with her lover dismissed and her hus-
band In entirely voluntary retirement.
makes situation no more effective
than the others that have been de-
scribed here. 1t Is not that the play
ends on an unresolved chord that
makes It's climax SO fiat. 1t does not
end at ALL The theatre prefers to
have its problems settled before It's
eyes.
1t is true that Nora Helmcr never
said where she was going or whether
or not she was coming back. She went
away. however. which was sufficiently
definite an action to satisfy the au-
dience. Had D'Annunzio or Haupt-
mann believed with Miss Atkins that
nothingness was the logical end OF
their themes they would have selected
others. Any condition Of circum-
stances that Is impossible of solution
on the stage is probably not for the
purposes of the playwright. In all
events. D'Annunzio, Hauptmann and
Dumas have rejected the conclusion
that Miss Atkins adopted. Yet they
seem altogether justified. judging by
the interest that their plays aroused
and the dulness which settles so thick
over 'Daddy's Gone Hunting"