Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-05

TINE Theater Guilds revival Of
Getting Married" is an amiable
If not wildly exciting service,
i giving the public the chance
they would III all probability
otherwise miss, OF listening to Mr..
Shaw talk for two hours en- subject
which remains of perennial interest.
The piece makes no pretense to being
well made" in the theatrical sense.
1t never was anything but wise and
witty conversation on all sorts Of aspects
of marriage. 1t hasn't got any younger
since 1908, but on the other hand, 1t has
kept its bounce better than some of its
contemporaries, thanks to Mr.. Shaws
brilliance and the fact that he was so
many jumps ahead of the public when
the play was written that good deal
of his wiSecracking still retains, for the
average audience, the element of sur
prise.
What he does is to perSonlfy a dozen
points OF view-that OF the sentimental
old muffin of a general whose views on
love and marriage are so routine in the
British sense that everybody knows
what he is going to say before he says
1t; that Of the sophisticated Spinster.
too proud of her independence to be
willing to surrender it on what she con-
youngsters appalled, at the onerouS con-
ditions under which marriages are still
theoretically made under English law,
and so on-and to turn them into a
stage debating society for the evening.
Little or nothing happens" in the usual
stage sense. but the characters them
selves are amusing and Soundly con-
ceived, bits of sure-flre stage hokum are
interSpersed here and there with the
repartee, and what with one thing and
another the piece emerges as pretty
good entertainment. A trifle long
drawn out and talky, to be sure, but the
talk is the good talk Of man able to
run dialetic circles round most of his
contemporaries, and, incidentally, him.
self happily married, with a devoted
wife whom the public never hears CT,
to provide him with a materially COM
Portable and intellectually serene back
ground against which to do his work.
The Guilds production is just about
all that either the author himself or
any Of his admirers could ask The IL
characters are all we'll cast and Ernest
Cossart as the silly old general mick
named "BoxerD is specially good. The
part itself is a pretty sure-flre one
the pompous, well meaning old stuffed
shirt. who insists OH regarding himself
sentimentally and self-pityingly as
lust a plain old soldier man"-and as
Mr.. CoSsart dresses and plays 1t, it has
a touch of the Gilbertian.
One of the novelties of the evening
Is the chance to see Miss Helen West
| ley in something other than her usual
ShreWish part. The lord mayors wife,
/ Mrs. George, IS a spoiled child of pas
/ SOMA woman brought UP 10 shrek for
her own way, and as an adult given TO
| falling in love and imagining herself
adored by just one man or another.
Off-hand, you might fear the worst
| from Miss Wesley in such part. But
as matter of fact she was surprisingly
! good Miss Wesley has long been a
/ slightly pathetic example of the tyranny
of theatcr caSting-an actress so per-
Sistently cast for a certain sort of
shrewish, nagging role, that the public
| finds difficulty in asSociating her with
anything else. Here she had one of her
rare chances to appear as something
| else, and while not ideal. perhaps hint
] cd at things she might have done had
! theatrical luck been kinder, or at any
/ rate little more varied.
y X FL
"THE Silent Witness" which comes
to Broadway after a successful
| ing things-a mystery and detective
| melodrama which makes no pretense OF
| being anything more than good show
Of its kind You check your more del
icate sensibilties with your coat and
| hat, bring along only your detective
| curiosity and your physical nerves, and
| have good time.
| No less than four men might be sus-
| pected, with good reason, of having
committed the murder. Of which a
| plucky father takes the blame In order
! to shield his son. and the story lodges
| in and out. with several flash-backs and
| blind trails, and the suspense is kept
| up through a firSt-class court room
scene in the Old Bailey. another good
examination scene in Scotland Yard,
| until the final curtain.
| The mems parts are specially we'll
| played, several English actors handling
| the outstanding roles, and Lionel At
will, as the father, is better cast than
| he has sometimes been on previous ap-
| pearances in this country, and thor
| oughly satisfactory. For those who like
| this sort of thing-and nearly every
! body does now and then--"The Silent
! Witness" can be recommended. 1t gets
of to a fast start and keeps going,