Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-25
NEW YORK, August "a.
MEXICAN novelists, unlike their
British brethren, have found
y the stage to be a disappoint-
ing sideline. Beckoned by its

~ British brethren, nave 1Ound
II the stage to be a disappoint-
ing sideline Beckoned by its
glamour and promised emolu-
ments, several Of them have ventured
into the theater's gay detours only to
discover a pot of bitterness at the
rainbow's terminal. Booth Harrington,
Harry Leon Wilson and Montague Glass
have been fairly successful in their
excursions to foreign parts. Some OF
their plays have been good and re-
munerative. But if you ask any OF
them what they think of the drama,
either as an art-form or means OF
livelihood, they will tell you that 1t Is
so much spinach. None OF them Is
at present writing plays.
Neither do we hear of any recent
footlight compositions by Mary Roberts
Rinehart, whose The Bat was once
so cheerful shudder. Miss iona Gale,
author Of Miss Lulu Bett," has quit
the boards, though she was encouraged
not to do so by one of Mr.. Pulitzer S
prize committees. Jesse Lynch Will
iiams, after serving a term or two In
the show shops, grew homesick Tor the
printed page and has returned to Ultra
ture. A season or two ago Louis Brom-
field, flushed with triumphs over the
library, dared to challenge the stage
with an effort at play-writing. HIS
reward was a severe soothing, in which
the public willingly Joined the press.
A victor In the reading rooms, Mr..
Bromfleld was vanQuished upon the
nlatform: and his only pleasant me-
rnento of the occasion is the critlque OF
his play by F. P. A. in the New YORK
Worlds Coming Tower" Mr.. Adams
said of it. approximately, that IT was
merely some actors on stage. he
could make the same remark ABOUT
many better play.
England's men of letters are more
successful in adapting their art to the
crude demands of the theater. st. John
Irvine, fastidious critic and human nov
elist, is also a fine playwright ana an
intelligent Snowman. Mr.. GalsWortny,
the greatest of the novelists, can write
plays almost as completely as he can
write sagas. Mr.. Shaw's worst Drama ma.
"Methuselah," is better than his pest
novel; Artists in Love-" Mr.. Maugham
and Mr.. Arlen, Mr.. Wodehouse and Mr..
Edgar Wallace are as expert between
prosceniums as between book covers. All
of them and several others are actively
protean. While Mr.. Wells Is wary OF
the rostrums. Arnold Bennett is not,
and one of these days, with the as
sistance of a collaboration such as George
Abbott. David Belasco, Phillip Moeller
or Reuben Mamoulian, he will grope
his way from the book shelves to Times
Square.
It was Mr.. Bennett who in an essay
upon the theater once said that 1t IS
easier to write a play than novel.
The novelist, said he. must employ
quantities of tinting adjectives to paint
his heroine in appropriate hues. Inc
dramatist, he continued, has no such
Job. All he has to do is to write In
his script ["enter Millicent"l and at
once lovely actress appears fulfllllng
all his ideal scriptions-virtuous. SEX
appealing, strong, weak, wanton, pres
byterian and capable of getting into the
blood Of two or more male actors. De-
spite Mr.. Benefits contempt for the
difhculties Of the theater he has not yet
solved or understood its inexplicable
clairvoyance.
Ring Lardner is now rewriting play,
"June Moon" q dramatization of one
OF his acidly sentimental short stories,
known as Some Like Them Cold" Not
content to be acclaimed as the most
sadly humorous and penetrating Of his
generations fabulists. Mr.. Lardner
hearkens to the COO of Satan coaXing
him into places where dangers, as the
saying goes, are rife. June Noon" as
its title subtly indicates, is about
small-town troubadour, who. coming
to Broadway in order to express hina-