Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-23

y
Country" presented as the fifth
play of the Theater Guilds
Il present season, is supposed to
take its audience back to the
Russia of the '40s of the last century,
and to one of those comfortable old
country houses which disappeared with
the revolution.
The crisis in which its principal
characters find Themselves married
woman and her young ward both in
love with the young tutor who has
been brought to the house to teach
the older woman's young son-might
arrive anywhere, to be sure, but 1t was
rather more likely to happen in one
of those old-fashioned Russian gentle
folks nests" than in Western Europe
or our own country.
Given this situation. the moody Rus
sian temperament, the fashion of idle
ness or comparative idleness, for the
masters family, and such liam" as
Turgenev depicted here was by no
| means unlikely. And a woman like
Natalia Petrovna in the play, pure,
innocent Of heart, sensible in most cir
cumstances, might, partly because OF
her innocence and inexperience, find
herself swept OF her feet by sudden
gust of passion.
Such was the case in the Islaev house.
hold, when into that isolated little
oasis came the attractive young tutor,
Bieliaev, to teach Natalia Petrovna'S
10-year-old boy Kolia to wander about
the estate, brother-and-si fashion,
with her orphan ward, Viera, girl
of II; and to look with suitably shy
and deferential admiration at the lady
of the manor, who was still only 20.
The lonely Viera, without quite real
izing what was happening to her, fell
head over heels in love with this Prince
Charming, who was so gay and alive
and clever about everything; and the
older woman-for in the '40s Of course,
the mother of q 10-year -old boy was
quite "old"-flrst laughed at her weak
ness, then opened her eyes in fright,
and finally closed them in desperation,
hopelessly jealous of her own "daugh-
ter" and helpless before the unexpected
and overpowering romance of this Sec
ond blooming.
It was a thoroughly Russian" situa-
ton, in the old-fashioned understand
ing of the word, and peculiarly
appropriate to the art of Turgenev,
with its quality at once urbane and
penetrating, its gift for revealing the
| possibility slightly sickly, but no less
real struggles of the human heart. No
well made" play here; no sharp, dy-
manic climaxes-simply some nice"
people, such as Turgenev himself knew
so well, taken in moment of emotion
al crisis, and depicted in the manner
of one who was, by nature, rather more
! the novelist than the dramatist.
The piece is excellently played by
i ALA zazimova and the Guild company,
and whether or not it finds favor with
q large public, its presentation in Eng
lish was thoroughly worth while and
- 90 Lob
the Theater Guild deserves the public's
gratitude.
MRS. FISKE is back in town, with
AVA the revival of Sheridan's "The
Rivals" which she played for some
thing like 20 weeks on tour, in celebra-
ton of the 150th anniversary of the
famous old comedy, before bringing it
to New York
The pleasant formality and elegance
Of the eighteenth century dictton, the
broad humors of Mrs. Malaprop and
Bob Acres, the fine-lady petulance and
die-away manners of Lydia Languish
| and Julia Melville, are delightful
enough after the rough language and
rougher behavior of which we see and
hear SO much nowadays in the theater,
and Mrs. Fiske's Mrs. Malaprop re-
veals our first comedienne at her best
The others in the cast brought back
many memories of pleasant evenings
in the theater in addition to making
new one. Jimmie" Powers was Bob
Acres, and the veteran Andrew Mack
| appeared as Sir Lucius O'Trigger and
embellished several of his entrances
and exits with snatches of the well re-
membered tenor of his old Irish plays
Miss Margery Maude was charming
Lydia Languish and Miss Betty Linley,
said to be lineal descendant of the
Betty Linley who was Sheridan's wife,
was a pretty and sufficiently senti-