Evening star., 1926-02-21

IT used TO be customary TO make
q Quizzical references to the British
sense of humor The American idea
Of fun was jaunty, often irresponsi-
bic iii matters of respect toward au-
thority, but facile in employing forms
both in verse and prose prescribed
by scholarly models. English writers
are now considering those exactions
with more Difference than they find
over here And yet "The Creaking
Chair" describing itself as a farcical
mystery play, leaves US wondering
whether the British sense of hu1nor
does not contain ponderous ele-
nents of the tragic and find graft
fcation in sense of the awful as
we'll as III moods of merriment.
To cali The Creaking Chair" "far
,.icap requires robust effort of the
imagination. The play begins with
man in a wheel chair, proceeds
with the nervous agitations OF walI
from Port Said pursued by slave
dealers and makes its way to very
dignihed denouement through a
maze of theft and murder. Plays
that the public has found breath
taking in their thrills are frequently
described as farce" or Satire" but
their success is due in slight degree,
e at all, to any mirthful distinction.
The Idea that they are funny prob
ably arises entirely in the minds of
he people concerned in the produc-
t;on who realize the absurdlty OF
the devices employed over and over
again with unvaryirg results to
make audiences shrek in surprise or
shudder in suspense.
In the midst of a hubbub Of ac-
ton, the thread of story based on
Egyptian research and the desecra-
tion of tonlbs leads to genuine
thought, gratifying to find for those
who believe that good play must
be able somewhere in its course to
signal out the presence Of little more
than ordinary mentality. The young
Egyptian student, whose nationality
has been concealed, brings the story
20 a close with an excellent declama-
, .ion Of we'll written protest against
tho violation OF sepulchres in the
cause of science The speech brings
the point home very cleverly, though,
perhaps, fallaciously, by the pointed
inquiry addressed to group OF Eng
Iish citizens, How would you like
20 see men from other countries
coming armed with picks and
.hovels to dig away the sacred relics
o! Westminster Abbey?"
The Creaking Chair" is not a
great drama, but it stood forward
as the best available to those who
care for the spoken word rather
than for the costume and song OF
a big musical play like "The Student
Prince" or for one of the perennial
. efforts like Kitty Kelly" to initiate
that classic specimen of appeal to
that great mass representing the
sub-average taste, "Abie's Irish
Rose"
The most interesting and unspar-
tnp criticisms of the theater are Of
fered by the theater itself. The
many efforts to disillusion the public
by reminders that actors are very
very human, indeed, and that me-
Chan1Cdl artl1lCe IS fespoHSloic loi
much of the charm that we insisy on
associating with poetical inspiration
nave had no influence, however
much they may have entertained
The theater exists in the minds OF
The people in series of impressions
and idealizations which cannot be
destroyed by cold logic or uncom-
promising fact. This time it is the
motion picture which takes whim-
.ical delight in ridiculing its own
methods, by showing how star
may be raade from very raw materi-
al with q little coaching and an
abundance of expert publicity. The
moral Of the satire-and every satire
1as IN underlying rnoral-points to
.. practice which, for long time, has
Constituted a temptation to sermon
re, that of compelling performers to
surrender themselves absolutely into
ne hands of merciless exploitation
which, In many cases, leaves them
sorced 70 rest under the imputatiotl