Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-10-25
BARRIE AT HIS BEST
IN HIS LATEST PLAY
The Old Barrie Of Dear Brutus'
is There, but a New and Deeper
Barrie as Well
Broad
.'-Every boy and every Rai.
That's born into this world alive,
L. either little Liberal
Or else a llttle CnnserNhtlNc.

That's born into this world alive.
IL either little Liberal
Or else little Conservative"
W. s. Gilbcrt's philOsophic sentry Of
Iolanthe" made that sage remark, and
although II seems like long journey
from Gilbert and Sullivan Fight opera to
James Matthew Barric's latest play, the
fnct remains that the sentry could have
gone on to say that every one is either
pro or anti. Barrie
Therefore to some MARY Rose" was
just another Of those incomprehensible
|, things of Barrie $" while TO others it
had all the beauty and wonder that
, 'Dcnr Brutus" had, and all the others
Of the long string of the Scottish
dramatist's works. So all that can BE-
1. done is to treat il from one angle and
let Il go at that.
Instead of the forest of what m Ght
have been" of Dear Brutus, Mary
! Rose" has it's Island that likes to be
visited" lonely spot in the Hebrides.
It TX typical place for the Barrie
fnncy to rOnm-hut make no mistake
"NTary Rose" is not fancy.
from utter whimsy to definite theme,
and here he has taken one fraught with
as much difficulty as beauty-the re-
turn of our loved ones believed dead.
Mary Rose disappears one day while
with her husband on "the island that
likes to be visited" vanishes in the
thin mir. Twenty FIVE years later she
returns to her family.
The tragedy Is that Mary Rose" is
unchanged, while they have aged, They
love her still, but there is a difference
She had become a memory to them
alive they do not know how to take
her. She senses their feelings.
How bald is that description. and
, yet how useless il would be 10 trnnScriho
the pathos and wonder II that scene
of "Mary Roses" disappearance the
tragedy of her return, perplexed, seek
ing.
There were few dry eyes in the Broad
Inst night. just as there were few after
the scene between Mr.. Gillette and Miss
been" in Dear Brutus." To many Il
seemed that Barrie achieved his great
est effect in that disappearance Of Mary
Rose in the second act scene. At al
events, he definitely side stepped what
would have been the most cruel scene
of all. the meeting Of Mary and her
son, whom she thinks of rs a baby. but
who has grown to mans estate a
roughened, almost crude soldier and
wanderer.
Instead, the playwright delayed that
meeting until after Mary Rose was dead
and returned as n "ghostiN," still seek =
ing her son. Then, indeed, she meets
him. but knows him not. knows only
that her search is over and that she can
go once more to the lovely, lovely
place" Perhaps, after all, it was
kinder and. certainly. happier SO.
Miss Ruth Chatterton, forever come
out of the kitchen" and freed OF moon :
light and honeysuCkle, was a wonder
fully beautiful and spiritual Mary. She
rose to her great chance in the last act
as her best friends would have desired
Surely. Barrie would have wished his
character 50.
The others were all so good that II
would be a shame to burden them will
cold, limiting adjectives. Especially die
Tom Nesbitt bring poetry and imagi
merry TO those remarkable lines of Bar
rie, lines which have maintained tn
charm of the old Barrie and added
depth and significance of an entirel!
new Barrie.