Evening star., 1927-04-03
English Authors Played
By American Actors
BY PHlLANDER JOHNSON.


gives the play its touch of pathetic
interest. The rebellion again$e social
constraint is akin to that shown by
Peg O My Heart"
In writing a play a dramatist
| frequently reviews little of his
own biography. Player folk, espe-
cially in the earlier drama, have
always been represented as enduring
lives OF hardships and resting under
a shadow Of social inequality. 1t IS
quite probable that the situation
when Pinero wrote was no different
from the situation Of today. when
players still struggle and have the
contemplation of the brilliant re-
wards that await success as an en-
couragemcnt to endurance under
hardship.
II IS to Tom Wrench. the young
author and hopeless lover of Ire
lawny. that suspicion turns III
quest Of the role into which the
dramatist has written little bit OF
| his own heart and philosophy. Fer
haps Pinero had his little experience
Of untold romance. Who knows!
1t is sure. however, that it was his
desire to depart from the stilted
and artificial rhetorical forms
hitherto deemed essential to theat-
rical expression and make the
characters Of the stage speak as
natural people such as may be met
win in EVERYDAY life. This was
the ideal sought by Tom Wrench.
an ideal triumphantly vindicated no
doubt after his first play was tre-
mcndous success in some unwrltten
epilogue. Such plays as Mrs. Tan
queray and Mrs. Ebbsmith to.o
their stories in speech of sinp.e
directness free from establishment.
The term problem play" was in
vented apparently for Pineros espe-
cial benefit. 1t would seem, as
matter of fact. that all plays might
be called problem" plays presenting
a dilemma and outlining the best that
the author can contrive by way OF
its solution.
While Pincro's naturalistic style
was gaining influence the scholarly
Stephen Philips, saturated with the
spirit of poetic literature, was writing
plays which delighted the actors,
won him plaudits in educational
circles and restored to large ele-
ment of the intellectual public
faith in dignified versiication. He
has been honored from time to time
by actors who enjoy diction as well
as character and situation. His
popularity has not been as continu-
Gus as that of Pinero, who is more
practical craftsman. but much less
of a poet.
Phillips wrote a play on the sub
ject of Ulysses" 1t is needless TO
remark that its style was classic and
that Mr.. Sherwood will never be
suspected of the slightest indebted
ness to it for his colloquial romp,
"The Road to Rome"
X y 4 X
How unexpectedly the careers of
theater writer's shape themselves is
illustrated in the Gilbert & Sullivan
revivals, which recur with growing
frequency and increased success.
Gilbert was a man of practical sense,
tenacious as to his rights. and by
no means given to an exaggerated
estimate of his own poetical prowess.
His parting from Sullivan after
many years of association is attrib-
uted to a disagreement about finan-
cial matters. 1t is hardly fair to
say that Gilbert's enduring reputa-
ton depends upon the music with
which his word-plays and rhymings
had the fortune to be linked. One
of the best plays that fell to the
share of the beautiful Mary Ander-
sor, one of the few actresses who
tasted the joys of theater success
and none of its bitterness, was
"Pygmalian and Galatea." Such
plays as "The Clouds" and Princess
Ida" and many others quite apart
from music were sufficient to estab-
lish reputation. Even the play
Charity" a good primitive study in
wickedness and retribution, had its
admirers, although Gilbert was not
particularly strong in prose save
when he reduced it to terse fun or
elaborated into a display of whimsi-
cal word-juggling.
x X u 4
The little value he attached to his
own productions as serious literature
is illustrated by his reference in
The Pirates" to the major general,
who, in order to secure rhyme for
the declaration that he had never
taken "gin afore," concluded with
the supercilious assertion that he
could whistle all the rhymes in that
Internal nonsense "Pinafore." His
disapproval of afFectation was keenly
expressed in the character of Bun
thorne in Patience" 1t satirized
Oscar Wilde then an absurd figure
depicted as voicing phrases whose
meaning doesn't matter, if it's only
idle chatter of transcendental
kind"
Gilbert, in spite Of his popularity
and prosperous circumstance, has
won no such pedestal for his fame
as Wilde has achieved Many poets
have had lives something like that
of Henry Ford. enduring a certain
amount of ridcule before attaining
recognition of supreme achievement.
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