New-York tribune., 1922-02-05
Range Of Shaw's : New
PLAY Gives Artist
Unusual Chance
By Walter Prichard Eaton

By Walter Prlchard E.aton
The artists of tho ncn stage craft
have been known to complain that thc
modern drama gives them too little
chance. Their creative imagination Us
cramped by Photographic realism. Nut
VIC fancy that Lee Simonscn, Of the
Theater Guild, isn't doing much COM
planning just now, while the Guild is
mounting Shaw's Back to Methuselah'
The play is so long that it has to be
acted in three sections, and the scenes
range all the way from tha Garden Of
Eden to a sun-lit glade ON summer
afternoon in the year 1890 A. u
There is very little Photographic record
Of tho Garden of Eden, and by 3! 920
a. D.. it is couceivable that the fora of
the earth will have practiced Mr..
Shaw creatisc evolution, as we'll as
the human fauna. so that the stage dc
signer is as lcgitimately free to indu &c
his fancy AS was the author. And be
tween the tvo extremes Shaw iuscrtn
al oasis in Mesopotamia, where Adam
dggcd and Eve span, and Cain, being
the warrior, was presumably tho gentle
man; modern, realistic study; the of
fetal parlor Of the president Of the
British islands in 2l70, A. D., wild
bleak spot on the seacoast Of Ireland,
and the portico OF mystic temple
where tho oracle resides. rhls ought
to keep even new theater artist busy
for bit.
On rebruarE 27. when the Guild be
gins tho play, acting the first section
for week before it presents the sec
ond. He shall see what Mr Sinonson
thinks The Garden Of Eden looked 1ke.
Shaw's stage directions call for q bed
OF Johnsv ort, a tree and serpent
The serpent, which l. q she. reroses
her head in the Johnsvort and coils
her many colcrcd body up and around
the tree There Is low rock, and a
glade. That's as far as the author goes.
The rest i UP to Mr.. Simonson. Shaw
doesn I even say what kind Of tree It
Is. Presumably it is an apple tree and
to see how long the actress who PLAYS
the serpent can rcposc her head in the
flowers and her coils in the tree with
out getting rush Of blood to tho
brain. 1t seems a part for trapczo
artist. Otherwise. what was Eden likeY
If you got each person you met to tell
sou his idea OF Eden YOU'D have
clew TO his character, aud pcrhars YOU
could guess something about his child
mood. What it amounts 10 is this
what is your ideal Of peaceful and
satisfying landscape beauty? The Stage
designer is not after realism then
he is after the most perfect beauty he
can vision. Veil say it is a mons
size job
Again, the two scenes in "The
Tragedy OF an Elderly Gcrtleman''
episode-the bleak coast and the
columnar temple Of the oracle are pure
fancy. They must suggest something
different, strange. because they arc so
Jar in the future and they may very
acll carry certain tragic forcbodinc.
When The last act o. all is reached. with
its glade. It's grove, It's temple. its SOU
brette hatched from an egg 1--WE have
seen hard boiled souhrettes on the stage
before now, It's strange beings almost
disembodied ihtellccts. its final prac-
tical dissolution into the immateriality
Of thought, the stage designer can go as
far as he likes, as far as he can, with
out forcing the note beyond what the
text will carry. No modern drama
seen in New York has given to the new
stage craft more ample opportunity.
l.. will be interesting to see what Mr.
Simonson and the guild can do v.a il.