The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-04
amber Baos and Employment Agencies Act IN Cahoo to Deceive o W0ke
Caprice, Sbmghtly Comedy
of the Am0uxs of Parasites

"They say of G. Sil-Vara," relates
the Theatre Guild program proudly,
that if he lived in London again
for six months you couldn't tell him
from an Englishman-he stayed in
London ten years-years which left
their mark on him, for he writes ex-
cellent English, wears English
clothes and drinks English tea"
Thus recommended, Sil-Vara, in
Caprice" receives his premiere on
the American stage at the Guild
Theatre. And, while the scene of
his comedy is laid in Vienna, his
work betrays the influence of Bond
st. and Rotten Row. He has writ
ten comedy which one would ex-
pect from a correct, well-bred Eng
lishman who wears English clothes
and drinks English tea.
In his years Of adolescence, AL
bert Won Echardt, a successful
counsellor of Vienna, enjoyed the So
ciety of village maiden, left her
an illegitimate son and forgot her.
Played by Alfred Lunt, Won Echardt
is a charming man, preferring the
after-hour calls of winsome divor-
Gees to the less interesting routine
work of the law office. The time
arrives when, believing that legality
in affairs of the heart has it's adj
vantages, he decides to marry lisa
Won Ilsen, his mistress.
simultaneously, the sweetheart of
his youth meditates on the possibil-
ity of career for her son, now six
teen. At the same time, by winning
Counsellor Echardt over to the boy,
Robert, she hopes to stage a come
back with the lawyer.
AS the favored mistress, Lynn
Fontanne gives a clever interpreted
ticn of the role of the woman of the
world; who knows how to exploit
her beauty and when to dye her
hair. She makes no secret of her
conception of man as nothing more
than a biological necessity"
Robert (Dougless Montgomery
is a Byronic young man, raised on
an educational diet of Keats, soulful
sunsets and the "What a young man
ought to know" series. He puzzles
lis father with his yearning for the
spiritual life, his contemplation of |
the FLOWERS sky and dis
tance," and his esthetic conviction
that "a passion should be impul-
sive, but controlled" But the coun-
sellor likes him, shows him how to
wear a dress suit and spats, and
tells him of the brilliant future
awaiting a lawyer.
Robert proves an apt pupil. With
IN two weeks he is experimenting
with cigars, cultivating languid
poses and essaying pastoral trills at
he piano after the manner of his
lad. He talks less and less of
mother and his plans FOR reju-
venated home life after she marries
the counsellor. And he discovers
,riumphantly that lisa IS the fairy
queen he used to dream of at
lights.
lisa chooses to leave "for ever"
IN the arrival of her home-loving
'ival. But with her Spontaneous
of eternity as her man
ays, she returns. Robert is pleased,
md between adolescent puffs at
.igar over the telephone he invites
Ter to the house and proclaims his
owe. Just as he reaches the high
pot of romance and lisa finds it
to put a restraining hand
m the youthful head, his mother en-
ers.
The mothers dreams of the in
egrity of her son are shattered. So
re Roberts illusions about Isla
when he discovers that she is a
rifler, with her eye on the bigger
atches. Outraged, mother and son
Jack their bags and return to the
,urer and more virtuous air of the
country.
The counsellor, hurt at first,
Plan tO. Use NIAGARA