The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-02-19
THE THEATRE
By D'FERRIER

THE most disappointing thing
A about eve Moderns" is that there
are no moderns in the play. While
the young intellectuals, represented
in the play, affect to despise even
Bernard Shaw as be ng old-fashioned,
in times of stress they are proved
to be only parrots Of radical thoughts
which they have heard others voice
and for which they are themselves
unwilling to make any sacrifices. For
letting these youngsters, who at first
repudiate with scornful contempt the
old moral, political and sociological
conventions of their parents genera
ton, be illogically made, by artificial
stage devices, to see the justification
of the older beliefs, it is hard to for
give the playwright, Israel Zangwill.
The ideas of a man, who believes
to a certain extent that the great
war was waged by the people to pre-
serve the world for democracy, are
made to triumph over those of his
son, who, until his unexplicable
change Of heart, has laughed at the
decadent creeds of the other. The
ending is, of course, sop to the
snug, middle class audiences, to
which a play must appeal in order to
be a financial success. But, the aims
and ideals of the youngsters, while
in this case proven to be not sincere,
are so brave and tender that it fills
one with unholy rage to see them
frustrated in so cheap a manner.
Zangwill has manufactured viii
famous seducer, necessary to the out
come of the plot, put few pseudo
intelligent phrases into his mouth,
and then called him modern. This
is so obviously dishonest stage trick
to make the play popular, and so
unfair, that it rankles.
But, despite the plot, the play is
very worthwhile. There is much
cleverness in the dialogue, epigram-
matte and punning, and the cast is
most noteworthy, indeed. Helen
Hayes, as Mary Sundale. the youth
full, babbling daughter of the family,
does nothing to destroy the suspicion
that she is one of the most talented
Of the younger generation on the
American stage-altho more felici-
tous part than this could be found
for her. In the scene where she is
compelled, against her will, to have
harsh words with her mother, whom
she believes to have been stricken,
she is most convincing, altho the
scene itself is rather falsely written
in that-played as it is-the mother
could hardly have remained oblivious
of the tension in the air. For this
unreality we can, however, In no way
blame Miss Hayes.
0. P. Heggie, Kenneth Mackenzie,
Isabel Irving, Mary Shawn fact
everyone in the cast-are most
praiseworthy, and the play has lost
nothing in the manner in which it
is staged. It is being presented at
Cohan's Grand Opera House.
Something Dangerous On Broadway.
NEW YORK, Feb. 18.-United
States Attorney Daugherty is paying
no attention to "Beggar on Horse
back" a Broadway comedy that is
turning 'em away. But he ought to.
Audiences of hardboiled eggs love
it only because it makes 'em laugh
at America and things American.
They laugh a dangerous kind of
laugh, deep and unreserved. The
sound waves must be flowing all over
the country from this unseemly
laughing, and they must be doing in
calculable damage.
"Beggar on Horseback" unmerci-
fully kids the yellow press; it unmer-
cifully satirizes the modern Ameri-
can attitude toward art, towards
money, towards responsibility. And,
Oh Boyl how the tough Broadway
eggs and the specialized highbrows
and everybody taught
And Sumner, and Nicholas Muir
ray Butler and Bill Burns have done
nothing to stop it.