Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-23
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GOD morning, every
b0dx. Z"

Sister Sal will please go to the
piano and play some decorous selec-
lions. Since physical culture is not
called for, it is an opportunity for
moral exercises that should be i'm
proved by all who have been to the
theaters this week
Stand firmly on both feet, drop the
head, chin on chest in an attitude Of
great contrition. Now One. two
three, four-try TO blush-hve, six,
seven, eight-holding your breath
will help-lift the head smartly, try
to look the world in the face-drop
chin, and repeat exercise as before.
With a little practice you may learn
to blush quite properly.
X *
Players are in large degree at the
mercy of circumstances, often facing
the alternative of needy unempioy-
ment or of appearance in a type of
entertainment favored by theatrical
producers who insist on measuring
popular demand on the lowest terms.
Cradle Snatchers" offered the as
surance that we need no longer go
to Paris for French farces from
which TO CLEAN material for rough
fun. For Cradle Snatchers." it must
be admitted that, Unreliable as the
story becomes for private converse
ton or even for the linotype, it
works it accomplishes its purposes
and laugh hungry population pays
without protest for the privilege OF
an evening which does not represent
spectacular boredom or suggestive
ness so fiat that it becomes feeble.
The opening performance of THE
Road to Rome" threatened to recall
the ancient and honorable first
nighter again from the lair to which
he betook himself soon after the an
nouncement first production on any
stage" lost the thrill of anticipation
and new performances were con-
temptuously referred 10 merely as
'tryouts."
The. theater management evidently
knewsst had something good, for it
dfdsnot include this presentation in
the custom touched upon earlier in
the season of selling two admission
seats Ior the price OF one.
The play had an element of com
pclling interest in the name of Jane
Cowl, whose performance of Juliet
astonished the public and whose
playing has invariably been distin-
guished by irresistible personal
charm and convincing intellectually.
So strong was the spirit of the
first night as the curtain rose again
and again in response to hand clap
ping that the call "Authorr' was
raised somewhere in the house.
But no author appeared. Miss
Cowl, assisted by her highly capable
leading man, Philip Merivale, had to
run upon the stage, bow and smile
and run off again until it began to
look like an athletic ordeal compar-
able to the Misunderstanding experiences
At political rally.
Y
The only author who appears in
response TO curtain call now is Mr..
Belasco, who, even when he does not
write the play, speaks as a graceful
proxy for literary genius. In his
case Mr.. Author" has become
member of the dramatic personae.
The veteran stage director casts
himself for the part and so spares
the modest writing man an ordeal
entirely antagonistic TO his type and
temperament.
Applause of friendly audience is
often as misleading as bouquets on
the occasion of singers debut. He
often finds prolonged ovation fol-
lowed by the cold, gray discovery
that the production was a great sue
cess for one night only.
" ~
While selecting very serious
background of thought in depicting
the Carthaginian route of conquest
as highway strewn with relics of
death and pillage. Mr.. Sherwood
chooses a method of sarcasm so
highly refined that it goes beyond
even satire and asserts itself with
irresistible merriment as culmina-
ton of travesty on everything per-
tanning to classic scholarship.
No liberty is too great to be taken
with historic chronicle. He tears
them up as he bids the camp his
torian destroy him. and put the
pieces together again as his own
generous and hilarious imagination
prompts. lie shows what fine and
elevating influence the great Cartha-
ginian campaign might have been
on public policy, if not on private
morals, had history happened his
way.
In spite of the fooIery which some
times becomes rugged, there are 1ovr
scenes with as much delicate anneaI
as those between Parthenia and In
gonar.
The pictures of ancient soldering
ignore the lexicon and rest souarefv
on the proposition that human nature
remains unchanged in it's reactions
under certain circum stances. There
was rough Latin used in the Roman
camps, and the English equivalents
are more forceful in their bare col
loquialism than the language could
have been in pedantic translation.
Classic speech has been butchered to
make an American holiday!
And it is a holiday, indeed: a full
relaxation of mind after the dull
grind of perfunctory weekly offense
10 good taste Not at all scrupuious
in matters of traditional propriety,
the wit and humor must in any event
be triumphantly acquitted OF any
charge of being perfunctory.
PLAYS emphasizing the authority
that women might exert in making
wars impossible have been written
numerously. "Lysistrata," which the