Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-12
ADJUSTMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS"

When a playwright, setting piece
upon the stage, chooses to tickle the
emotional surface of his characters
rather than incise them with a more
biting irony he usually resorts to the
mechanism of light love, lightly worded.
Granted that he is clever and Sophis-
ticated, he impartS to his speeches a
witty decadence, avoiding the pitfalls
of robust idealism that entangles him
In deeper analysis.
Such comedy, blithe and provoca-
tive and tuned to the mood of mans
vanity in love, has come to the Ma
tional Theater in Caprice" by G. Sill
Vara, Viennese critic and journalist.
1t was acted last night by Alfred Lunt
and Lynn Fontanne with finesse that
borders on greatness, each bit of dia-
logue and pantomime valued at its
highest.
For its European presentation the
play was called NIT der Liebe Spleen, -
and when first acquired by the New
York Theater Guild two years ago was
known by the translation of its German
title. Playing at Love" Later an
adaptation by Philip Moeller, who also
directed the production, was renamed
Caprice" 1t has been one of the most
successful light comedies sponsored by
the guild and comes to Washington
after great acclaim in Boston, New
YORK. London and American way
stations.
The play proper concerns the affairs
OF q middle-aged Viennese lawyer, his
mistress, and the sudden introduction
into his household of his l6-year-old
son, attended by the mother, for whom
the counselor had had an early and
brief love.
Reaching moments of occasional
enerveScence, the comedy for the most
(,.,t
people. II Counselor Won Echardt. bril-
liant logician that he is in the court
room, admits that his fire and pathos
before the jury are simply simulated,
certain art In argument. then others
admit for him that his whole life is a
stimulation whose complexities he be-
means and doses with bicarbonate of
soda.
Sil-vara, borrowing from Freud and
Wilde. keeps his discussion conyersa-
tional and cool. In a way it is annoy
ing, but after the fashion of all COM
tlnentaI dramatiStS of skill. Just when
one feels that he is about to start some
thing which win give body and blood
70 the story he compromises with cpl
gram and witticism. Thus, when he
oispatcneS his siren to the Bavarian
Alps In q temper of skeptic renuncia-
ton, leaving the stage domestically and
dramatically to the mother and son, he
brings her back again in less than a
week, quite uninfiuenced by absence and
UNAFFECTED by the impulse which took
her from the scene originally, a quasi
triumph of technique over truth. Again.
IN building up a threatened complica-
lion between the counselor's son and
the counSelor's lisa "a situation nm
usually similar to that in the "Fata
Morgana" OF Ernst Vajda, and having
an equal potentiality for poienancv and
damage) Sil-Vara dissipates the friIstra-
ton and embitters the boy Ca beauti-
1uliy drewn dramatic portrait) through
quite extraneouS channel.
After all, however, it Is comedy. and
perhaps the salving over of emotional
problem, is the most expert Treatment
Putting the smile of nonchalance and
concession upon life's annoyances.
winch Won Echardt felt to be the part
OF wisdom, is a neat escape.
The carriage of the two main roles
py Mr.. Lunt and Miss Fontanne Is
beautifully balanced Miss Fontanne
mas consistently enraptured audiences
with her portrayal of the sfrewd lisa
and at last nights performance spec-
tators clearly Joined the devotion. She
and last nights performance spec
only by Mr.. Lunt's-a brilliant use of
gesture and posture, of half-finished
speech, of mock hesitancy.
Douglass Montgomery in the role of
Robert, the son, gives a staccato eager
ness to his boys words and actions
which is remarkably faithful to the
manner of bright, sensitive German
youths in life. It is character some
how wasted, left unfinished, dissipated
by Sf-Vara when it has the elements
OF keen search into the heart of
adolescence.
Lily Cahill's Amalia, the mother, is
quietly able, a def touch of serenity
amid surrounding turmoil, but here
again the scope for color, for fire, for
rage under logical circumstances is
dawdled away in sacrifice to coherent
smartness. Contributing bits of inn
portance to the atmosphere are turned
in by Caroline Newcomb, Leonard Loan
and Geneva Harrison, competent players
all.
With other works in progress, Sill