The New York herald., 1922-12-14
"The Texas Nightingale"

We are just little embarrassed by
the following letter, which comes
through the mail bearing the sigma
ture of one Charles Wood:
To one with a memory that oc-
casionally ranges back a year or so,
the treatment of Miss Akins's new
play by certain dramatic critic
seems rather disingenuous. ".The
Texas Nightingale is the most skill
ful and the most entertaining of the
plays which Zoe Atkins has written"
Then comparative oblivion. covered
slightly by reflections upon the acting
OF the play. And two years ago--one
can hear the echo yet--this same
critic pounded the big base drum be-
fore the leaky tent wherein the mad
Varrick took her breathless drop
from high society. And last year the
curtain descending on ''Daddy's Gone
A-Hunting,' drew from him all the
reactions of Gerry flapper at Far
rar matinee. But this year Miss
Atkins writes her best play--in the
opinion of your humble critic Of a
critic, one of the best comedies of its
type in American drama--only to
have the Zealot, from whose past per-
formances one might reasonably ex-
pect the most, fall victim to an attack
of creeping silence.
Truly a strange disease, creeping
silence; it will be interesting some day
to trace its growth. But is 1t fair to
''Fae Texas Nightingale" and to the
actors appearing in it. that he should
have attempted to review the play
in his condition? Specifically, is 1t
fair to Johyna Rowland whose Holly
hook Jones-Brasa Canava might 9TH
erwise have been marked by him as
one of the outstanding characterize
tions of the year? That viewing her
performance he sighed "for a player
who can look like Ethel Barrymore
and act like Mrs. Fiske," us not a
criticism but a symptom. You know
he might far better have murmured
some polite excuse about being in
disposed
The writer Of this communication
seems to be pointing, little rudely.
at the compiler of these notes. When
he speaks of "a certain dramatic
critic" he is seferring in his subtle and
evasive way to the extremely uncer-
tain dramatic critic who, ever since
1.-THE Texas Nightingale" was first
presented in this town, has been OF
two-or three minds as to what he
ought to say about it. We confess to
having beaten the drum on past oc-
casions in front of Zoe Akins's booth.
Indeed, we began a little quiet cheer
ing for her back in the days when her
short play called "The Magical City
was presented at the now transmitted
Bandbox by the Washington Square
Players. And we confess. too, to the
Creeping silence" which has thwarted
every impulse to say nothing about
"The Texas Nightingale"
This new play of hers at the empire
seems to us not only the best play she
has written but one of the three or
four most artful and most civilized
comedies which the American stage
has vet produced. 1t is a shrewd and
penetrating play, with whole phiioso-
phy of art and life woven into its pas
sages of delicate banter. And 1t con-
tains one incompatible dramatic por.
trait, it's recognizable and delightful
picture of a prima donna behind the
.scenes-the bounding Madame Canava
who. in the epic of her development
from the gaudy Hollyhock Jones OF
Texas. runs through four husbands
gives birth TO a battling poet, is alter
nately wise and childish, tender and
ferocious. sentimental and literal, ex'
allied and vulgar, but who. after nj
matter Of how stormy and wracking 6
day. can when o'clock comes, draw
| deep breath, blow away all the human
| chaff around her and march on to the
Metropolitan stage to sing Brunhilde.
| 1t is. you see, play about severa
odd fish and the magnificent Canavs
herself is not the only museum piece
among the specimens on its stage. L
is the more fragile and more easil,