New-York tribune., 1921-05-01

RHk% e"A'ri, ~S sHS saying goes, 20
" last Sundays Tribune, We ob
served n theatrical advertise
ment headed "The Deadly Parallel
! Mr. Haywood Broun Us. Dramatic Crit
ics.' In this we found that Mr.. Ha,np-
dens managers took occasion to point
cut that many reviewers said that Mr..
hampden's Macbeth was excellent ard
shst the reviewer Of The Tribune said
saat be wasn't. Ne don't know just
Why or to whom such a state Of affairs
may be said t, be deadly AS it hap
pened, VIC were not in a minority cf
one in dislikng the Macbeth of MIR.
Hampden, but even if we had been we
should still be prepared to say hat
Of it!' Such state OF affairs has oc-
cnrred in the past, and We rather think
that it may occur again. SO far as we
remember past experiences, both actor
and critic are doing as we'll as could
be expected.
We assume that the discrepancy in
critical appraisal which seems so star
ting to Mr. Eampden's manager may
haze arisen from the fact that the crit
ics VINO praised the actor thought he
vas GOOD and said so, and the critic of
Ine Tribune thought he was bad and
sain that. 1t does not even discourage
~ to ind that The Evening journal,
quite contrary to our own expressed
opinion, said "Mr. Hampden is an
ideal Macbeth. The reviewer of The
evening Journal knows what he likes
aad s entitled to declare himself. The
mme right we reserve for ourself. I'm
less we get unduly excited over per-
iofmancc, which fortunately did not
occur during Macbeth" we confne
0ur remarks not to opinions but to
'0methlng in which we are beyond the
possibiiity of error, something in
WHICH our authority is supreme, and
saat Is the statement of whether we
personally derived joy or pain from a
ef1ormance. 1t may be that one hun
efed years from now Walter Hamp-
osn's birthday will be celebrated with
1sfa matinees and double e-headers. If
= We will be able to look down upon
= festivities quite calmly. We will
:" haunt the Tribune Building to get
tne hles and erase the statement in
Me Macbeth" review that "Walter
aanpden failed to move or interest
- he didn't, and We are prepared to
tue statement stand We can't
'aiaS OF anybody in position to dis
pscts il.
" course, Mr.. Hampden may say
4E after all he did not attempt Mac
sA1 merely to interest and move the
snasic reviewer of The Tribune. 1t
als right, he might easily contend,
sosr II he wants to whether or not
Tribune reviewer approves of his
'lods. Nor is there as yet any law
sa 1ns statute books of the state or
'ea preventing actors from turning
sns toward the audience at impor-
81 moments in Shakespeare's plays
81. : sort Of "now-get-this" air and |
'sude Still less are there city or
ases prescribing the height OF wigs
ssie actors or the length of night
We never suggested that there I
w ground for criminal action
4. = ne business. In fact, even when
8, aanpden came downstairs and
nat he had murdered Duncan
d ,uat believe him. We felt certain |
asle again was ono Of those mild,
e1've men who just have to make
aags for the sake of notoriety.
Is vas one like that in the Eiweli
ss e. you may remember.
II oWse said in The Evening Post
sae finest representation that
a seen in this city or elsewhere
sae death OF Edwin Booth and
eited in the advertisement as
~ the deadly psrallel. We are
sssperateiy hard not to get ex-
ao passicnate about all this, but
'a We possibly have written
He thsti We haven't seen !