The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-09-01
Miss Rambeau's
Beauty Sapes Mem
Zoe Atkins Play
'Daddy's Gone a Hunting Is
Presented at the Plymouth
Theatre.

| Evidently Arthur Hopkins has again
come to the relief OF A. ii. Woods In
keeping the radiant Marjorie Rambeau
before the public 1t Is incredible that
the task should be difficult. Miss Ram
beau never looked so lovely she did last
night Her glrlish beauty is again IN
its bud. Nothing In the performance OF
"Daddy's Gone a-Huntins'' was SO nota-
BILE as the physical charm she impaired
to every minute. Her loveliness. demure
as II was in most OF her scenes, occa-
s.onally blazed out until the stage OF
the Plymouth Theatre actually giowed
with a beauty that held every spectator
| in happy taralldom. She Is rarely
lovely apparition and adds this high
distinction to whatever play she may
happen to act in.
Zoe Atkins, author OF "Declassee,"
wrote for Miss Rambeau the new play
in which the audience last night well
coined her with so much enthusiasm.
Miss Atkins played variation on
rather familiar theme-but the variation
was new. 1t was the old struggle be-
tween the Philistine wife. the housewife
| and mother and the artist. And its
solution in Miss Akins's hands, so far
as she did settle the problem, was diff
| ferent from the conclusion OF DAnnun-
zio in la Gioconda" and Hauptmann
| in "Die Versunkene Glocke." She was
writing. however. Of the day and Of New
York.
The beloved husband, who came back
| from years study In Paris. brought
with him several companions. but little
or no affection for his wife. He did not
love even the patroness who had sent
him there to cultivate the talent shown
in his commercial work. He made no
concealment of the degree to which he
had enjoyed himself abroad. Nor did he
approve Of hypocrisy in the relations be-
tween himself and the wife who loved
him still.
So she suffered in silence, moved from
Harlem to Washington square and had
Robert Edmond Jones paint the wood
work downtown. so that its Victorian
outlines were less noticeable. Probably
Mr.. Jones also supplied the sense OF
emptiness which Is apparently the cor
nerstone of his theory Of interior decora-
ton.
1t was near the close Of the second
act that the husband, when he saw the
bracelets presented by an admirer to his
wife. observed:
Whats sauce for the goose Is sauce
for the gander." The spectators Won
dered. When her husband made no
objection to her possession OF the jewelry,
even when he knew that It's donor had
been making love to her. the end seemed
to have come But the old moral of
"Francillon" did not work out In this
case. The end of the play found her
alone. She had sent away her lover
Her husband had voluntarily retired
Her child had been sent away to the
country. 1t vas no case OF sauce foI
the goose.
Probably Miss Atkins meant to reveal
in this episode and extremely meagre
attempt at drama that husbands should
not be allowed to go to Paris to study
art. Her play undeniabiy proved that
going to act or their return as II they
going to act on thei rreturn as II they
had been no further away than Green
! witch Village 1t was only that Kind
OF an artist that the hero turned out
to be-
Miss Rambeau acted with none OF hei
usual mannerisms and exaggerat.on o
detail, but played with real feeling and
naturalness Frank Conroy was equally
satisfying in the role of the artistic hus
band. Lee Baker Hugh Dillman. Heller
Robbins and Manart Klippen were others
that added to the efficiency OF the pro-
duction Yet they could not lift tn,
evening out of the colorless monotone
which was its note from the first scene
to the last. Miss Rambcau's beauty alone
could accomplish that.