New-York tribune., 1921-01-18
Mrs. Fiske Seen
I'm Poor Play
OF Cheap Fabric
Conventional Tale of Captain
of Industry and the Poet
Told Again, and Worse,
in s'Wake Up, Jonathan!"
THE CAST
By Haywood Broun

Mrs. Fiske ought to be ashamed of
herself. She has sold fine talent for
mess which isn't even honest pottage.
The reward, or the penalty, if you
! please, for having done consistently
fine work in the theater is that the
player must go on doing fine work
Anything less than that is a betrayal.
wake Up, Jonathan!" which was pro-
,duced at the Henry Miller Theater last
night, can hardly be regarded as a mis-
take. 1t is much too terrible Acct
dents like that can't happen. The play
is a frank and permcditated attempt to
gather the considerable financial re-
wards which often come to the drama
tist who observes the success of vari-
Gus cheap theatrical stratagems and
then stuffs them all into one play.
There is in "Wake Up, Jonathan! ="
one touching scene in which the heart
less father tells his children that there
isn't any Santa Claus and tears their
stockings down from the fireplace on
Christmas Eve. 1t was a mean thing
to do. But there are people who have
believed in Mrs. Fiske just as devoutly
as in Santa Claus. What can be said
for her when she allows them to be
slapped in the face with "Wake Up,
Jonathan!"?
The new play by Hatcher Hughes and
Elmer L. Rice is called comedy, but
it is. as matter Of fact, crude and vio-
lent burlesque. 1t is an attempt to liven
up the Christmas Carol by peppering
1T with gags. No play of the year has
been filled with so many jokes. Every
other line is spoken for the sake of the
snappy comeback. Even the children,
and the play is filled with tots, lisp out
their thrill jests, all of which are aimed
directly for the point of the jaw. Worst
Of all, one character in the play receives
all the punishment. He is the feeder
tor the fun. Not once does he score
off anybody else. His is the head upon
which all the jokes Of the world have
come. Practically all the jokes are
rude remarks. The climax of the mcrri
ment is reached when one character
calls another cootie
The strawman of the play is a cap
tain of finance. He has, in fact. amassed
fortune of $100,o00OOo, and, of
course, he is an utter idiot. AS a IN od-
crately consistent radical, we are not
particularly sentimental about million
most of them. but their folly is hardly
of the absurd and blatant kind with
which Jonathan Blake is endowed in
the play. He is pictured as a mental
detective OF an exceedingly unpleasant
type until just two minutes before the
iinal curtain, when the fastest stage,l
reformation which we have ever wit |
messed, is effected.
With captain Of industry as one
OF the characters it is needless to add
mat another OF the people in the play
IS Is poet. Here, too, the conventional
llne is followed and he is pictured as
sort OF tramp. Although he is intended
to seem one of the admirable people
IN the. little piece, poetry is rather
more deeply insulted than business, for
the dramatists seem to hold that a
poet has real mission to fulfill in
LIE as a mothers aid. without paw.
These poets are generally very faith |
ful; kind and gentle with children.
The plot Of the play need not con-
cern us greatly. 1t deals with tae
capitalist Jonathan Blake, who goes
tention to business and then retnrns
home to bully his wife and children
and assume a position as head of the
rouse. AS we have said, he is re-
formed at the last minute by the in
<uence Of the wife and the meek and
helpful poet. Mrs. Fiske plays the
wife and probably she does some
good acting. but the play made us see
too red to notice details. Howard
Lang, Charles Dalton and Donald
Cameron were probably about as COOL
as the play permitted. Some Of the
Others we are almost certain, were
very bad.
OF course, Mrs. Fske must have q
new play every once and so often. bat
before she selects another "Wake In.
Jonathan!" we suggest that she might
find "rhe Royal Nonesuch" little
more dignihed.