The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-09-11
WPLAYSSEEM
Be WRITTEN
FOR BOX OFFICE
Young PIayWrights, Having
Tried One Extreme,
Face About.
By the NEA Play Jury

nave DeeH teaching the yOuIS lued
to shoot at box office receipts.
And the apt students are proving
no mean marksman.
But the curse of formula hangs
over their efforts.
In a theatrical season so young
that it still believes in Santa Claus,
the gifts displayed seem to please
the children of the theater, but the
practiced eye detects another
seasons toys made over.
After all, the young playwright
must eat, and having tried serious
diet and gained little weight he can
not entirely hc blamed if he turns
To Rorui - fare.
TT" thcrc is Martin Flavin, who
gay 'N' theater that haunting.
nigi'tmar.sh yet compassionate
study Of inherited insanity, Chill
dren or the Moon"
His newest piece. just presented to
Broadway. startled this young real
tst's devoted following, for it is an
Der of the "up-in.P Peggy s-room-get-
Wig .Gertie 's.garter" farces wherein
young man with rounderish past
weds, settles down upon his honeyA
moon, only to discover that a door
of his hotel room opens upon that of
Peggy. a blonde movie queen he had
trotted about with in days agone.
Flavin, giving all due credit. has
done the froth extremely well ir bits,
particularly those sections where the
film actress is called upon to regis
ter" for public effect and return to-
her slangy self thereafter Marion
Coakley, who has appeared about
these parts as a perpetual ingenue, Is
the movie gal But just where one is
ready to surrender to the author
freshness, he condescends to lines
distressingly trite.
The point that worries this depart
ment is that with a dozen OF these
capable young writer's catching on
to the formula for writing "sure-fire"
plays, will there not be so many
successes that some of them will fail
in spite of it?
Thus the New York season got
away with a piece entitled Loose
Ankles" which seems definitely to
have caught on. Although it is said
that Sam Janney, its author, had
the piece written four years ago and
failed to market it, bringing 1t out
now after much rewriting, neverthe-
less it seems strangely like the off,
spring of a mating between Cradle
Snatchers" and "Is Eat So"
&%t
The daddy of alkthe formulists is
perhaps, Owen Davis, and since his
latest is said to be his 147th play,
he certainly should have all the
tricks of the trade at hand. What
5 proved puzzTing about this Da
rs is that he produced an lice
Bound" and is entrusted with the
transcription of some of the seasons
most important productions, while
turning out the seasons most blood
curdling melodrama and a mystery
play such as 1.-THE Donovan Affair"
for instarc"
Mystery melodrama is always sure
fire and even so befuddled a concoc
ton as 1.-THE Ghost Train" which
puffed in last week from merry Eng
land with AL Woods at the throttle
seems likely to remain at this sta
tion most of the winter.
1.-THE Donovan Affair" is vastly
better in construction. 1t follows the
accepted formula Of murder at
dinner party with all the guests ac-
cused and the program not, please
don't tell the solution" Davis is q
def craftsman and his play ranks
among the best of This school.
tss
Finally there is a Broadway dis
covery'' this week. whose pictures
will be in the theatrical magazines
before long and of whom there will
DO much talk.
She Is Dorothy Furgees, who ap
pears in thin fragile and very
pleasant comedy, The Adorablo
LIAR
Miss Burgesss first hove in sight
when Helen Hayes left the cast Of
Dancing Mothers and she became
the ingenue. She is charming, quite
young. and as girlish as her age. and
this jury likes her considerably bet.
ter than Helen Hayes who. after all,
may be growing up since she has
achieved success with Barrie plays.
MPH'The Adorable Liar" concerns a
\ ber-romantic miss who tells many
les about imagined lovers and who
finally gets saxophone player to
her room for midnight supper only
to find a Florida posse outside ready
to lynch him while she, herself, be-
comes most squeamish at this denou-
ment to her own daring,