The New York herald., 1921-10-23

scene In which the young girl drives
away for the sake of his own happi-
ness the boy Of her choice Is an ex-
ample Of the skin discernible in every
scene. She does not weep or go into
Mysteries, or rave about the barrier
which may stand in the way Of their
marriage. Petulantly she begins a
lovers quarrel about another girl,
friend of his sister. "They always
are" as she answers. BY degrees she
SO deeply wounds his self-esteem that
he throws himself out Of the house.
In anguish she stands at the door
making as If to call him back. He does
open the door. Then another rather
cruel flaunt sends him away forever,
leaving a broken but a courageous
heart behind him. BY such artistic
indirection Is the story told.
Play skiIfully Acted.
or course nobody in the whole Of
''The Bill Of Divorcement" holds the
interest as Miss Katherine Cornell.
who SO skilfully acts this part. Her
playing is. in it's naturalness and in
the observance Of the authors free
dom from all posing or gesture, re-
markably effective.
Allan Pollock does more than excite
sympathy for the returned captain.
In itself to accomplish so much is an
achievement that any player might be
proud of, since his return upsers the
hopes of all the characters the spec
tator is inclined to love. He does
more. for he awakens genuine pity
for the afflicted man, even II one does
hate his success in persuadlng his
wife at one time to come back to him
and desert her betrothed.
Miss Ada King, who contributed n
few fine minutes to Mary Rose pre-
sents the most truthful portrait of
religious old maid that the stage has
seen In years. Her humor is nature
itself. Without exaggeration of speech
or attitude she imparts to the exces-
sive conscientiousness of q vinegary
spinster quality Of irresistible COM
edy which is most entertaining be-
cause 1t seems lifelike In its simplicity.
Return of Bernstein.
The theatre Is most catholic of the
arts Granville Barker has said that
any ing which may be acted on q
stage before public is play. wheth-
er It Is or not, there should be no limi-
tations to the kind Of dramas that are
allowed. Whether they be examples
OF the well made play or written as
the younger dramatic set Of Harvard
University says from character and
not from plot, and whether they be
plays with a thesis or whether they
possess nothing more serious than
bedroom scene; in short. II they are
historical. pastoral or any Of the kinds
in the catalogue Of the player In
Hamlet" they, nevertheless. merit a
cordial welcome. They all deserve the
glad hand Of the arts.
But nothing seems so much out Of
place on the American stage as the
oversexed. emotional plays that arrive
from France. There is an example of
this kind In "The Claw" which Arthur
Hopkins presented at the Broadhurst
Theatre on Monday. Such drama
bears no relation to life as It is un-
derstood here or anywhere outside of
Paris. Perhaps II would be more just
20 say outside the theatre Of Paris.
The inevitable melange OF sex, politics,
finance and the other essentially Gallic
ingredients must be no more than a
convention Of the theatre.
Would such play" asked an
American manager of a publisher who
~as discussing with him an intensely
Parisian and modern drama then on
view In one OF the Paris theatres:
Would such a play be understood and
crJuyed outside OF Paris. In any of the
large cities of Francc7"
Why. bless me-" answered the pub
Usher. they would not even know
what II meant in Versailles
so probably these emotional prod
uats of the same elements are In real
ity made by the Paris playwrights
without any too close scrutiny Of life.
Certainly they are false enough when