The New York herald., 1921-01-19
Appears as Raja i'm William
Archer's Highly Interesting
Oriental Drama.

-.
Hardened theatregoers have been
looking for something in the line Of
The Jest" to make this season worthy
of dinner table conversation. Well, they
have it. At the Booth Theatre last eve
ming first nighters saw in THE Green
Goddess" a play Of adventure that
would stihe any yawns.
In a felicitous curtain speech George
ArliSs. the star said that Winthrop
Ames. the producer. had thought bes,
to keep the soft pedal on the fact that
William Archer. the author. had been
the first TO translate Ibsen for the Eng
lish stage, because, as the actor put 1t,
IF the impression got about that this
was a highbrow play we should all be
ruined" But they need have no fears
Iosen never would recognize, except for
flashes that II had been written by
literary second cousin.
While the play Is an unmixed delight.
Il is of no unmiXed device. 1t brings
10 mind a mingling of THE Broken
Wing plus The Lady OF the Lamp"
plus via Wireless" That isn't to say
that 1t isn't entirely distinctive and
original for the English authority on
the drama hadn't seen any of these
American theatrical by-products when
for the first time he drove his own pen
into the arena. where he himself had
many an opportunity to put thumbs
down.
But 1t suggests THE Broken Wing"
because II starts with the forced land
ing in the little mountainous kingdom of
Rukh by an English trio--a Major, his
wife and an aviator doctor--whose air
plane nose almost did obeisance to the
image of the green goddess in the hill
side shrine where It crashed. THE Lady
of the Lamp" parallel lay In the con-
suming hatred of the subtle Rdjd of this
semi-independent principality beyond the
Hmalayas who had been educated at
an English university. but was still
tnctured with Orientalism. He planned
to sacrifice to the goddess these three
stranded wayfarers. because his three
half-brothers were condemned to death
by the Indian British Government for a
political assassination-and that's where
the play lived up to the best traditions
OF Via Wireless and enabled them to
be saved in a buzz of glory.
There Is none OF the poetic sweep of
THE Jest" in this, but Mr. Archer ap-
parently decided that one couldn't be
poetic with the very modern crackle of
Goddess" however. has something of
the same intense human passions. with
the quietly seething hatred of the East
ern potentate for the white rulers OF
Asia. with his desire for the handsome
Englishwoman, with her aversion to her
husband and her love for the doctor-all
Of them strong and understandable emo
tions. starkly portrayed at times and
bound to carry any play over the cold
mountain tops of public Indifference.
Technically the fledgling author has
written brilliant piece. which the vet
eran dramatic critic. modest enough in
curtain speech when introduced by
Arliss, might properly refer to in his
next standard book on the drama as a
model OF play construction. Possibly
Mr.. Archer trembled lest over his first
essay In dramaturgy some kind friend
might point out TO him that he had
committed the sacrilege of violating all
the sacrosanct principles of writing he
had himself laid down. But the play is
not only model. but it moves-which
models often don't.
Arliss as the Rdjo is a paragon of
histrionic suavity. with his polite sneers
at the "swaggerlng lords Of creation, "