New-York tribune., 1921-12-06
The New Play
By Percy Hammond
Miss Ferguson in an Inter-
esting Theatrical Exper-
iment Called ssThe
Varying Shore
TTrn CAST

Varying Shore
THE CAST
In the prologuc---At, Monte Carlo. Tin,e---
1od day.
Laura ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Sylvia Cough
~ te s'.''...,.. ..,.,,.s... .Margot Rien,An
roger ......... ..,.,...... Harris Gilmore
= ON ON .....'..,,.... Donald Rethune
larry Sturgis ..........,. Charles Francis
The Ghost OF Nine. Leland. Miss Ferguson
ACT
Mrne. Leland's SUITE Paris. Tine---ts7o
Sarreth Trcadway ......... Paul ITvcrton
An Englishman ......,..... Herbert Evans
henter .......... ...... Geraldine OBrien
Kichard Observation-Disclosures. Rollo Peters
Nine. Leland (iuiie Venable, 80 '''s''
Miss Ferguson
Joe Lelands country place. near New York.
Time--1S59 -
Vernon Baird .....,.... ~ Clyde North
tteSLer ............... Geraldine @ Erien
Larry Sturgis ......... -. Charles Francis
Nftty ..f..S. blythe DAILY
Joe Leland .............l James Crane
Tom =. -. Charles Baldwin
Julie .......t ...... :. Miss Ferguson
ACT III
Governor venable's home Richmond, Va
~ IHme---IS4T
Governor Vcnabie 49,. Wright Kramer
Hester ................ .Geraldine O'Bren
=
Mrs. venable ...s.......... Maidcl Turner
William, Blevins ......s.. Norman Houston
Larry Sturgis =. ....,,.,.E charles Francis
The Epilogue---Same as the Prologue.
T4me--To-day.
Those rules and apothegms of the
drama which order play to begin at
the beginning and to stop, if not to end
at the finish, are interestingly disre-
garded by Miss Zoe Atkins in s'The Vary
ing Shore" Last night at the Hud
son she stood that sad story upon its
head in the prologue, in which engaging
posture she maintained it deftly
until in the epilogue it resumed its
conventional footing. That is, the
play started beyond the grave, with
Miss Elsie Ferguson as an aged spirit
recounting her earthly adventures, and
it proceeded through those adventures
cradleward from kept-womanhood to
betrayal as a child.
This blithe indifference to the laws
aroused in the first audience no in
dignant sense of litigation, for "The
Varying Shore" despite its topsy-
turvy structure proved intelligible and
appealing. 1t seemed to detract moth
ing from the enjoyment Of those pres
ent to know that the lady whose for
tunes they were observing was but a
ghost, lowering around the terraces at
Monte Carlo. Suspense appeared to be
at hand in sufficient quantities, and we
all were as engrossed in the proceed
ings as we would be at Hamlet" or
any other drama with whose contents
we are familiar.
Miss Akins's inversive method may
not be followed, perhaps, in morning
newspaper report of the play So it
will be related here as usual in the
commonplace and traditional fashion.
Miss Ferguson, as Julie Venable, grand
daughter of n Governor of Virginia,
having been betrayed by youthful poll
tician in 1S47, absconds to New York,
where she embraces the loose life.
"Darkling stand the varying shore O
the world; in her vagrant navigations
she has no compass. In 1859 we find
her the melancholy mistress of a profit
gate New Yorker Mr.. James Crane),
whose gaming debts she liquidates
with her pearls. He tires of her, re
luctantly, and she embarks again. The
next port is her hotel in Paris in 1870,
where, beautiful and at the age of
forty, she is the property of crude
Bostonian (Mr. Paul Overton), who
picked her up somewhere in London.
i. X X
Miss Ferguson here is at her loveli-
est. A gorgeous woman Of the world,
entangled in the crimson chains OF
luxury, she is, besides, a mother, for
the son of her girlhood indiscretion
(RolIo Peters) having been graduated
from Princeton, is visiting her in ig-
norance of her plight. The family of
the girl he loves, however, knows her
story and complications follow fast
Her keeper offers her marriage, in q
way reminiscent OF "Declassee, Dut
wishdraws his proposal. All through
the play the unhappy Julie has been
followed, hopelessly by one of her vir-
ginia sweethearts (Mr. Charles Fran
cis). Every day he brought her plum
cake in the old times and he used tc
call her "Snowbird." 1t is to this de-
voted person that she clings at the
last, and it is he who joins her al
Monte Carlo in the spirit world. Aside
from some habits of strident gesture
and an inclination occasionally to in
tone her speeches, Miss Ferguson's per
formance is winning representation
of the role. She is least satisfactory
of course, in counterfeiting child o
sixteen; but even in that hazardou
assignment she comes out we'll. He
associates are excellent, including Mis-
Geraldine O'Brien as a negro maid.
ST. Cecile Lodge, f. and A. M,
Buys Winter Garden Matinee