Evening star., 1925-04-26

The theater continued to disre-
gard the calendar and to display a
full line of Winter fashions. New
plays have been presented, even
after the buds were on the trees,
with a certainty of soon being COM
PEELED to suspend run, even in the
event of exceptional success. The
Spring production is a favorite
method of theatrical incubation, as
it permits thorough trial, an analy
sis of weak spots and Summer va
cation i'll which to cure defects.
The Gorilla which bears about
the same RELATIONSHIP to dramatic
art that a mechanical toy bears to
painting or sculpture, had a fine
start i'll this city, and will probably
be able to play we'll along toward
the Junetime before going into dock
for polishing and reinforcement.
< 4
1t was remarkable to note how in
a play whose form is mechanical
rather than literary new material
develops which can easily be in
serted. The effort at eXtempora-
neous revision of a manuscript by a
producer or stage manager with a
turn of mind more practical than
poetic is what gives bald-headed
author a slight advantage in the
matter of physical comfort, since he
has no hair to tear. This kind OF
supervision, with view to superb
cial effect, even at the sacrifice OF
logical consistency, is responsible for
the gradual drifting from the well
studied and proportionate drama OF
which THE Second Mrs Tanqueray'
is a specimen to demonstration
of simple, yet scientific, program
making, of which the Greenwich
Follies" is no less satisfying ex-
ample. Much new material was in
serted in The Gorilla" during the
week,
The mellowing touch that time be
slows has brought the Mrs. Tan
queray play, once viewed only as a
contender in a larger field of So
called problem plays, into full re-
spect as a classic, worthy even OF
the services of lecturer i'll advance,
as in the case of The Rivals" 1t
is one of the newest of the old plays.
1t tells its story with even greater
effect than 1t did years ago. The
role played by Ethel Barrymore
with the power and security that
render it so intensely human is more
deeply and more swiftly understood
than it was when the play was max
ing its way into early reputation.
Possibly this is due to the fact that
everybody has been dabbling more
or less into psychological subjects
dismissing the old standards of hu-
man Measurement dividing us ali
into either saints or heavy villains
and studying moral erraticisms from
the viewpoint of the dramatist, him
self in search of some lucid analysis
of relation of mental impulse and
conscientious resistance.
4
Something of the same protest
against Mrs. Tanqueray" was
made as was leveled at Ladies OF
the Evening" though naturally Tess
violent in phraseology, in order to
keep the comment in proper rhetor1-
cal relationship TO the style of the
play itself. The story of the woman
defiant of moral standards, whether
figuring in the most ancient Hebrew
classic or the most modern colo
quial crudity, has been reprchended
by every authoritative sense of pro-
priety, and, nevertheless, accepted
unreservedly by popular interest
There are two chapters of this life
story of the woman lost who seeks
10 find herself socially. The play
must limit itself to one or the other
of them. The first is the effort tc
escape by means of sincere love
from an environment which has be-
come repulsive. This chapter ends
with the elimination of the romance
a defiance of conventional restraint
a faith that the sound of wedding
bells of itself brings the assurance
that they will live happy ever after
The second chapter delineates the
future that the socially ill-mateo
pair must face, and its end is either
tragedy or a shallow pathetic recon
citation. The distance in the socia
scale between the types OF woman
hood portrayed may be great, but
the distance in actual human nature
is not. Mrs. Tanqueray could not
he for a moment classified as lady
of the evening. She had enjoyed, Al
least. the early advantage of being
d lady of the afternoon tea. But