New-York tribune., 1921-11-08
The New PLAY
BY Percy Hammond


] This ingratiating little romance rcp-
8 resents Mr.. Harrington in one of his
s periods OF atonement. He misbehaves
3 occasionally, as in "The Wren," and
s.then, though by no means contrite
3 person, he asks and receives forgive
4 mess via the medium of generous
2 comedy. "The Intimate Strangers" is in
sihis better humor. 1t allows him to OBJ
ssserve and to depict that adolescence in
AIthe study of which he is sole and un-
I s:paralleled; and it permits him further
to range sympathetically and with per-
8 Ss:seption among the moods and emotions
4 Of the younger middle-aged. Save in
Il few places where the proceedings
grow bit heavy with prolonged con-
4 Iversation, you will find the play most
II friendly thing, brightly written and
4 conceived, well arranged, and full of
delightfully."- sophisticated sentiment.
Il x X x
! 1t is one of Mr.. Tarkington's anus
] ing devices in "The Intimate Strangers"
| to place adjoining generations in elo-
4 quent juxtapesitien-a- -gusty fiapper in
/; contrast with her lovely aunt--illus-
/ trating deftly the ways of each with
man. Miss Billie Burke, whose charm
! and good looks are not mitigated for
J. this reviewer by her sometimes man
nerisms, impersonates the more adult
siren; Miss Frances Howard counter
/ feits with breezy fidelity the "insect-
i youth" The men involved are one of
!, Mr.. Glenn Hunters delicious sopho-
/ mores; and an elegant person of thirty
I or thereabouts, acted by Mr.. Alfred
Lunt, effectively, but Git may be) little
in the manner of a dancing master
T The play begins joyously in an isolated
8 railway station, where Miss Burke and
1 the intimacy common to castawaya on
/ desert islands. to-
+ After the customary quarrel over
( the scant supply Of nourishment, they
fall in love- He, SO he says, is bach
elor because of his loathing for the
rev kind Of girl. He hates the brazen
little huzzies who wear breeches, smoke
cigarettes in public and carry bottle
(. of home made gin in their hip pock-
cts. She, wise from her experience
with susceptible males is wary of his
avowas and suspects that on the ap-
pearance of her niece, who is one Of
the loud type, he will fall for her raw
ishing methods. Which in way he
does as the party proceeds to the coun-
try home of Miss Burke and the ter
rible child. @a@-
X X x
Thereafter the older woman, who is
considerable of fox in her manage
ment of men. assumes a maturity,
though she has it not, planning at the
end to surprise him with her compara-
tive youth. In this process Miss Burke
effectually doffs her "nimble kitten"
ways and dons a sweet, sedate and
twinkling decorum, admirable in its
consistency. She plays with all of the
charm and some of the sparkling tricks
of Mrs. Fiske. Miss Howard, in her
way, is equally efficient. Her cline"
is to stampede the stranger of wealth
to the comic distress of the hunter.
She says "help and "atta- boy" and by
her merciless contempt for middle age
shouts the youthful sensations of i'm
mortality. The play ends comfortably
with the generations harmoniously dis
posed, but with Miss Burke's mysteri-.
Gus age undiscovered. Mr.. Lunt at the
end declines to receive information on
the subject, believing, with the poet,
that women, like music, should never
I. IL