Evening star., 1926-04-04
The Season In RETROSPECT.
Bv ph,1auder Johnson.

TN spite of much material that in
v'ted protest and perhaps pre-
pared the way for a sentiment in
favor OF absolute blue laws for the
theater. the departing season was
distinguish by a number of delight
full epis odes. These episodes have
been eddies in the general current,
for among the autocrats of the stage
there has apparently been an anar-
chistic license self-assumed and wide
ly interpreted as significant of a
general state OF social disorder. The
theater has reflected wild stories,
not only in play and scenario, but in
PubhCity embellishments of personal
biography The. motto has been
Everything goes in the notoriety
lind from a simple divorce sensa-
tion to champagne splash in a
bath tub !" 1t is a condition to be
expected in a course of recovery
from the universal shell shock of
war.
A retrospective impression as the
i, budding trees proclaim the welcome
advent of the National Theater
stock company for Summer run
(unless Winter continues to persist
is that of hash or mnce pie
built from care1essly selected ma
terials, and yet, some parts of it
very good, indeed. 1t is pleasurable
10 note that the strongest liking
was manifest for the most genuinely
meritorious productions; conspicu-
ously George Arliss in "Old Eng
lish in drama, and odd Heidel-
berg" beautiful and satisfactory
play long before it was decided to
snake it musical production. subor-
dinatirg action and story to melo-
dious exploitation.
X n
The laughing honors of the sea-
BON. in spite of the usual procession
OF gentleman comics, strangely
enough, went TO a woman, Rosetta
Duncan, whose mirthfulness, defiant
OF every restraint taught by Sunday
school or seminary, broke her audi
cnces into complete submission to
her spirit Of uncompromising physi-
gal fun. No woman has worked so
hard or SO successfully since Marie
Dressler asscgted funmaking as a
superior feminine mission. Duncan
Is not as big as Dressler in stature.
but IN a funmaking way there is
even more of her.
4 X ~
Having estimated public taste on
She lowest possible terms because of
ouch successes as Rain" and Ladies
of the Evening" and several more,
there was shameless and abiect
willingness to oblige manifest among
the New York producers. Like a
j. deluge from an Unsecured manhole
in city street, there emerged an i'll
~apored torrent The discussion of
the theater became an exercise in
4he use of circumlocutions to imply
4he presence of an offense which
gould not be described in deliberate
ferms of general speech without of
fense still greater. "A Good Bad
Woman" Mission Mary" "Aloma"
ehd dozen like them jumbled along
end soon disintegrated or were swept
aside. 1t has been a fungoid theater
with the popular distinction plainly
evident as between the edible mush-
room and the toadstool. Among the
mushrooms which proved edible was
ladies of the Evening" Among the
toadSroOlS Desire Under the Elms''
promptly made itself known as the
most repulsive specimen, both 10
taste and view.
X X
1t was something OF disappoint-
ment to find David Belasco, whom
the Duhlic insists ON p,1tfinU> on n
pedestal, and who seems almost like
a bad boy in his obstinate efforts to
climb down and play in the dirt,
walking circles around Washington
after his unsatisfactory experience
with Achmed Abdullah Achmet's pre-
.Ssous play The Passionate Prince" "
4 should have been warning that
Salvage might easily prove diff
cult proposition TO save, even by the
unlimited use of block and tackle by