The New York herald., 1922-03-05

stringing together these dramas of
incident will be a valuable possess
sion. He will learn other important
secrets about his profession, and one
of them will probably be not to have
three acts play in the dark, or at all
events in the deep gloom in which
most of "Bavu" passes.
Plays from the French.
More than the usual number Of plays
which have added to the by no means
brilliant season were taken from the
French. Some OF them really were of
the kind the old wheeze used to tell
about--probably the French were glad
to get rid of them. Some were more or
less contemporaneous, such as 'Kiki,"
and some went back to the salad days
of Caillavet and DE Flers.
Then there were some. like 1.-THE
Rubicon" and "Montmarte," with a
bare decade of experience behind them.
Even the veteran Fedora" peeped
through the curtains of her lovers
death chamber for the first time in
years. Seven were imported to afford
opportunity to star. Slngularly
enough not one was a so-called adap-
tation. Every one was presented as
a French product. In past two-thirds
would have been in one way or an
other distorted to represent our own
social existence.
Why were the new plays produced
and why were others which had for
years failed to appeal to American
managers brought forward at this late
date? Undoubtedly the American play
wright did not rise to the task Of sup
plying as many plays as the great in
dustry of the drama has come to de-
mand. 1t is impossible now to go
through a season with the dramas of
Dative origin.
OF course there is a heavy toll laid
on the English stage. Outside Of
France little has come from the
Continent, The Czarina" and "The
Deluge" being possibly the only
dramas from other countries than
France. On the s,ller hand, it is en-
couraging to national pride that other
stages have felt the need of our drama.
Some Of tho noted successes of the
London year have been American.
There is additional cause for satisfac-
tion in this fact from the smaller ex-
tent OF the theater's enterprise abroad.
Personality and the Play.
In spite of the necessity Of import
ing from Europe plays which should
serve for the stars, there Is no evil
dence from the experiments of the
year that the power of the personality
is any greater. Yet there was a time
in the history of the American the
alter when the star could make any
play acceptable to the public whether
it were "The Wife," by Sheridan
Knowles, or "The Gladiator" by DIR.
Bird, with the whole repertoire of
Shakespeare between these two then
more or less modern masterpieces. So
completely has the actor surrendered
his supremacy to the drama as the
center of the public's interest. No
personally so dominates. the theater
to-day to make any degree of success
possible in a play that falls too far
below the standard.
The wrecks stranded along the main
lines of theater travel this year have
not spared some of the most popular
actors OF the day. More than one
popular player has surrendered TO the
newer taste which demands the work
rather than the interpreter. There are
SO few dominating figures on the
American stage to-day that IL is
scarcely possible to name any that by
his abandonment of an unsatisfactory
drama could be looked upon as "a type
Of the dramatic merit demanded now.
But there are many well trained and
skiliful players. Moro than usual have
found II impossible to summon the
loyalty of their admirers in the plays
they tried this year.
In way personality is much more
potent to-day in music than in the
drama. Marie Jeritza has been able to
impart new life to every opera in
which she had an important role.
There was. Of course. too little oppor-
tunity for her in "Cavalleria Rusti-
rwna-' to repeat the experience OF
Emma Calve and make sensation
once more out of Mascagni's opera.
But to "Tosca" and "Lohengrin" and
to Die waikure" she has been able to
impart a seething vitality which has
made the public more eager to hear
these works than Il has been I'm years.
And what a penetrating interest