The Washington herald., 1922-07-02

"a from the far corners Of the republic
\ there comes to hand . Holiyvoed pros
scale that Mount Everest of the dr.msl a. plan
TO bring to life Abraham lincoln. via ths popular
thester. r,a
The plans for the undert.s1ng are Dsss
elaborate. Lincolniana In Virginia Ksnf1ciy.
illinois, New Orleans. along the Potomac ths
James, the Ohio and the Mississtppf rfvers and
lastly, in Washington itself. viii be nlmsd a.
authentic background for what is alleged 10 Be
the greatest drama since ObersmmsrKas thsoghf
up the Passion Play.
All Of which highly fmDsssanS
true. though It would be wen 70 proossd
cautiously In preliminary estimates 81 saoh
project Not that the American thestsr 10 81
ready overstocked with dramatic portraits ef
Lincoln; but there few directors VINO pos
sess the mental. spiritual and technical sQuipmsn1
that such a task requires
Looking back nfty ysazs - ness
stretching between Lnooln's time and ths ps~s-
ent, In which interval the dramattsn ef a.
American thester have been able, apparsuflN
to produce but nrst-rsts visuaitzastoa -
Abraham Lincoln, and that was nothing buf .
miniature That one single pressntmsnt Lea ms
add. was not the caricsture Of Lincoln that John
Drinkwater brought here from England and
before which the American pulpit press and
public fell PROSTATE within q month after IN
arrival
As matter Of fact the one and sniy
dramatic study of Lincoln that approxim.tsd
the thoughtful force and the great underlying
OF Lincoln that flashed for 4 moment through
the flying celluloid of d. W. Grinith's Birth
of Nation" and which almost instantly
lost in the welter of emotion and action that
Griffith had crammed into his opus. For all its
depth. perspective and force, erinithS Lincoln
was, at most, a miniature that remains un-
assimilated to this hour by millions who
his civil war drann and TO whom 1t never oncs
occurs a well-nigh classic example Of Lincoln
theater visuslizaton-
r Is hardly likely that the Hollywood pundits
who attempt the business on . larger
scale will attain the poignant spiritual quality
i even the mechanical accuracy Of Grinith's
neeting glimpse of the Emsncipstor, but IL IN
more than likely that Hollywood for all it's short
comings, will achieve portrait vastly less OF a
libel on Father Abraham than the inept and mis-
leading Drinkwater csricature.
Here lies the chief theater value Of the
Hollywood attempt to dramstize Lincoln Il is
difficult to imagine how any American. in an
effort of this kind could utterly fail DO better
than Drinkwater and certainly there Is a most
vital need of theater portrait Of Lincoln
offset the peculiarly atrocious effect on the
popular mind of Drinkwater's play. whose
popularity is still a miracle OF advertising.
The vogue of Drinkwateris astonishing
drama is altogether remarkable instance Of
what be done by a loose-thinking critics
when confronted, the hand. with Il
ample of the Holy British Drama. and the
other. with stupendous personal ignorance Of
and their public
Within thirty days after the arrival OF this
play, the Pendennises of Broadway and Back Bay
were whooping IL UP for Drinkwat some new
dramatic messiah come to lead up to grace.
The literary weeklies and high-brow monthlies
groaned with their panegyrics of Drinkwater and
his opus. while scholarly discussions became
acrid and heated in the effort 20 reconcile his
tory Drtnkwater.
Under the circumstances Il is not strange
that the lords and commons of the land, from
Penobscot to San Diego. developed their own
Drinkwater completes and feverishly awaited
the plays first road tour. When IL did finally
take TO the road the populace vastly too
over-awed by New York and Boston and in most
cases. Infinitely too unfamiliar with the char
acter of Lincoln to question the dramatic.
chanticleer hgure who chattered through this
stupendous caricsture. -
Here and there. OF course. fierce minority
reports nled against Drinkwater and his
drama. The late Charles Mitchell. OF Duluth
Mimi. scholar in matters pertaining 10 Lincoln
witnessed the play and was too unnamed 70
labor to There were others here and
there. like him. but for the part Abraham
Lincoln the statesman. the President and the
emancipator, remains TO millions as nothing
more than the strutting actor who mouth~d
piatitudes and "a hokum through the ineom-
prehensibie mazes Of Drinkwater's -AhrahAn
Lincoln"