New-York tribune., 1922-11-19
Some Plays i'm Book Form
By Charlotte Dean

OeeS A~SoAA
standards should be used to measure
it. Mr.. Bennett does pack it in tidily
for the most part, odds and ends
tumbling out only in the last three
| or four pages.
not already we'll aware of that, the
newspapers, blazing with accounts of
all her doings, would inform her. A
more alluring charmer than Lady Nab
comes along. She is in the business
of selling typewriters, and after selling
one to Lady Nab she proceeds to an
other deal with that cock sure young
aristocrat.
| A foreign fypnotist figures as the
director of this business. He trans
fers the young ladies' souls. Blanche
takes over not only Lady Mab's soul
but her money, every penny of which
which she adds enormously in the way
of instability, and finally her darling
Aaron. The soul transference is a
grand hoax. 1t is regular Bennett
advertisement. To provide for *Lady
Mab's future an uncle is dragged in.
Or it may be, and it is preferable
thought, that he is introduced to give
Blanche the one really bright line in
/ the piece. Without his suggestion that
Lady NAB go 80 America to give lee
lures, Blanche could never have said.
Lady Mabs. They'll think that's what
Columbus discovered Americas for"
! Despite the fact that Blanche is in
| the typewriting business, she is no
Lillian. Mr.. Benefits present fondness
for typewriting lleroines does not mean
any other kind of uniformity. The
piece is almost as light and divcrting
as Lillian and it's satire is delicately
laid on.
"Goat Alley" by Ernest Howard
Culbertson, is tragedy of negro life
a stunning tragedy. The transcription
of the negro talk makes it difficult
reading for the first few pages, but
once into the swing of it's rhythmic
movement, nothing stands between the
reader and the harsh, crude color of
the drama. There is nothing in it of
propaganda Or racial uplift It is pure
tragedy.
Lucy Belle goes down with gallant
defiance. Her miserable fate is esrtain
from the beginning, but she never
yields, never gives an inch When she
stumbles and falls in the struggle, and
She falls more than once, it is always
with a furious, futile grasp at her
shadowy antagonist. 1t is not so much
that she falls as that she is knocked
down, and after every blow che
struggles bravely 10 her feet again
until the final crushing shock. In the
characterization of Aunt Becky, Slim,
jeff. Lizzie and Lucy Bellies man, Sam,
there is fine perception and vivid
writing. There is heartbreak in this
play.
'8The Waltz of the Dogs" by Leonid
Andreyev, author of "He Who Gets
Slapped" seems less poignant in it's
tragedy. Henry begins by being
strong, serious, determined, methodi-
cal. He ends insanely. can say quite
calmly of the play, it is terrible trag-
edy. | cannot shed tears over it. Per-
haps it fails to clutch at the heart be-
: cause Henry is not lovable. 1t does not
tear me to pieces to see such an eff
cient, complacent person as Henry
brought to the dust.
The eight illustrations in "From
Morn to Midnight" are from photo
tion Of The play. They are we'll chosen,
representing not only this play but the
whole mood of Georg Kaiser, German
, drama"ist Ashley Dukes translates
him capably. He admires Kaiser's
lively invention, his nicely oY language,
his giTt of rejecting an international
} rather than local unrest, and partic-
ularly his method--the method Of the
expressionist. On the sound founda-
tion of his admiration he builds so
II well that the play reads as smoothly
as ii it had never been written in any
other language than English. To those
: who saw the play it should prove alb
sorbing reading. Its rush and beat
are felt even in the printed page
OF tthe four Stewart Kidd publica-
lions IN paper covers. the best reading
is Scrambled Eggs" by Lawton Mack
not act as we'll as the others, because
chicken costumes, for one thing, and
wing fapping and clucking are dan
gerous competitors of less obvious
humor, which in this case it would be
q pity to obscure. Hens and roosters.
aucks and brakes are engaged in de-
iightfui discussion of the single stand
ard OF morality and equal division Of
responsibility (Sha}l the rooster sit on
sne eggs while the hen is campaigning
for a laying-in HOSPITALITY and investi.
). cations Of the Rabbit Warren Under
world
THE Stick-up," by Pierre Loving.
produced last January by the Province.
town Players here, is very fanta site
santasy- The three characters, former
train robbers, hold up comet. .aThe
Fountain of Youth" by Serafin and
JOAQUIN Alvarez-Quintero. is trAnslated
from the Spanish by Samuel N. Baker.
There are two characters, Aurea and
Ceilini, and the action extends over
iorty-five years. 1t is one of those
things in which the dialogue runs:
! Aurea-All the radiance which is
wanting to your eyes your words pos
Cellini--Yes?
i Aurea-Yes. Go on. Go on.
teliinl--1ou wish me to seontinuee
Aurea--i wish you to continue.
mary MacMillan's "A Fan and Two
"a Gasndlesticks" is pretty little thing
an ..i n rhynneA couplets, which neces,
sariiy sy lead tw awkwardness now and
again. but with no pretensions to more
than II achieves. 1t deserves tba y1e fre1
anent production it enioys nf tha L.,,d. =