Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-08

/ dramatic literature and the
ater," as such, and the negligible
part that writing. in its literary sense
may have to do with that which Is ef-
fective, as played.
Here We have o light man OF the
theater who seems to have found the
means perfectly to express himself. Mr.,
Coward writes, directs and acts his own
play, and in Miss Gertrude Lawrence
has teammate who fully understands
his mood-the light ionic touch; Senti-
ment adged with disillllstion; the mock
cry which, before it turns to disillusion
as gayly mocks itself.
AS literature Private Lives" Is MOTH
ing. AS comment on or observation OF
life, in any explicit sense. it is the
veriest fluff. Clip out almost any half
dozen lines and read them apart from
their context and they would be SO
many empty words. But they serve, in
Mr.. towards and Miss Lawrence's
hands, as sufficient springboards from
which to cast all sorts of amusing glintS
on life in general, and, in particular, on
the ahsurdities and ironies Of passionate
love.
The whole piece Is a tour de force of
Mr.. Coward's particular brand of wit,
light sardonic touch and expert knowl-
edge Of what the public wants. There
is the slightest of plots. A divorced
couple marry again; meet on their Sec
ond honeymoons when they share ad-
joining apartments on the terrace OF
a Riviera hotel, and as their infatu-
alton for each other flares up, "elope'
from their new mates. The latter
pursue them, there is ridiculous meet
ing of the quartet in Paris fiat
squabbleS and reconciliations this way
and that. Then the original pair, help
less in the clutch Of what Mr.. Shaw
used to call the life force" gallop away
together again.
But the plot tells the least of the
actual story. Just how difncult 1t is to
give any notion Of the farce's amuse-
ment without really seeing it may be
suggested by saying that for practically
the whole of the second act Miss Law
renee and Mr.. Coward hold the stage
and hold the audience with nothing
happening" except the flashing give
and take Of the changing moods OF
their passion for each other and the
constant sauabbling into which their
own quickness, clevernesS and ironic
sense thruSts them.
The piece Is full of the magic Of act
ing and the theater, as distinguished
from dramatic writing that stands on its
own feet: of that which can't be read
takes life when 1t Is played, and played
with the inimitable touch which such
accomplished farceurs as these can
give IL.
So far as Characterization goes, IT
might be said that Elyot and Amanda
are clever, sardonic, Jagged with So
phiStication," as Amanda once remarks,
while the other pair are downright and
rather dull.
Characterization, indeed, scarcely goes
farther than this. None of the four has
any explicit existence outside the canvas
stage walls which frame them. But
lines might be in other hands one
shivers. or yawns, to contemplate. But
Miss Lawrence and Mr.. Coward give
them the widest sort of life" con-
Stantly surprise, arrive several jumps
ahead of the spectator and are of
again. 1t is, above all, piece to be seen
and heard, and not tiresomely talked
about
THE new Pirandello play, "As You
= Desire Me-" is scarcely up to the
level of "Six Characters in Search of an
Author" and others of the ingenious
Italians pieces, yet with the vivid act
ing which the statuesque Miss Judith
<AAACAoO41 SAFCo A. ~ AtcSnACo OIL 14AOCA CoO-
ing evening in the theater, neverthe-
less.
1t is all about the identity Of wife
who disappeared during the late war.
Enemy soldiers broke into the house
while the husband was away at the
'front.' dragged the wife with them or
turned her, half-demented, adrift. Ten
years later, in Berlin cabaret, a friend
of the family, the artist who had paint
ed her portrait, discovers a woman who
he believes to be the real wife and
brings her back to Italy and her hus-
band She passionately wishes to be &C
cepted as the real wife, but the reality
of this return to her old self-if it is
her old self-depends on the belief of
the husband and family that she actual
| ly Is the woman they knew and loved.
She will be the real" Lucia only If
she can make herself 'as you dseire
me-"
The author intricately arranges things
so that various conclusions are possible.
It is possible to believe that the I'M
known woman is actually the wom-
an who wandered away, and I'M
willing, because of the degradation
she has suffered, to resume her place
unless convinced that she is completely
'aS you desire me-" or that she is not
the concrete Lucia, but an unfortunate
adventures passionately trying to live
herself into the personality of the other