Evening star., 1932-03-08

year of the Victorian era. And,
which is more important, it is fine
drama superbly acted.
According to backStage gossip,
Miss Cornell obtained the American
rights to THE Barretts of Wimpole
Street" after various commercial
managers in New York rejected SINH
lar opportunities. If this gossip is
founded on fact, there is fresh
field for probing by the Patents
Committee of the Lower House. For
the Besier play is good theater as
well as good drama. 1t combines
the unerring box office qualities OF
innumerable earlier stage triumphS,
from 1bsen's "Rosmersholm" back to
Harriet Beecher Stowe at her worst.
An audience sees the crushing
effect of parental oppression on
family life in period when conven-
tion ruled the middle-claSS British
home with an iron hand. Costume
and dialogue aid realistic vision OF
the decade when Sir Walter Scott
was still turning out his Waverly
novels and Dickens was beginning to
gain recognition as humorist; when
the youthful Queen Victoria was i'll
whelming and lifelong love for her
fascinating prince -consort; when
young Disraeh was conducting his
chivalrous and stately courtship OF
Mrs. Wyndham Lewis, Is years his
senior, and when Sir Robert Peel,
prime minister of England, was
creating his modern policemen, still
known to Cockneys as "Peelers."
This is the background for stage
story that is colorful and absorb
ingly interesting even to theatergoers
who have never read "Pippa Passes"
or "Paracelsus," and who are likely
to confuse The Ring and the Book
with an interesting church ceremony.
But THE Barretts of Wimpole
Street" offers the clash OF drama as
well as the lure of romance. A
tyrannical father, who reverses the
Oedipus complex, creates Just the
centuate the tender charm that has
been woven into this singularly ap-
pealing story of Elizabeth Barrett's
love for Robert Browning.
Miss Cornell does something more
than create a striking stage por-
trait of the heroine of No. so VIM
pole street. She breathes into the
character those plaintive, appeal
ing qualities which Elizabeth Bar
rett herself disclosed in her Son
nets from the Portuguese" that thin
ly disguised revelation Of her love
for the vibrant, brilliant, masterful
young poet, six years her junior,
who brought into the life of the in
valid stirring suggestions of Italian
sunshine and reckless, oyerpower-
ing love.
The portrait of Elizabeth, accu-
rately outlined by Besier, is built by
Miss Cornell into a living woman
whose delicate, restless hands grip
the heartstrings of an audience.
She wins instant sympathy in the
opening scenes, as the gentle auto
crat of the Wimpole street home.
That sympathy is intensified when
the robust young poet, Browning,
fresh from triumphs in the literary
world, bursts into her life with an
egoism that is disarmingly ingenu-
Gus, and an almost boyish admira-
tion for the frail poetess One fol-
lows with keen interest the develop
ment Of the romance, the resulting
miracle of Elizabeths recovery the
ghastly discovery Of her fathers Sc
cret and her fight from the gloomy
room that had been her prison to
the invigorating sunshine of Flor
ence, Vienna and Rome.
Miss Cornell is on the stage
throughout the play and dominates
every scene by the sheer power Of
wonderfully fine acting. Neverthe-
less, credit must be given to the
support she receives from the re-
markable cast selected and directed
by Guthrie McClintic. Her portrait
Of Elizabeth gains added effect by
the sincerity and realism of Brian
Ahernes Robert Browning Charles
Waldron succeeds in making the
father a thoroughly detestable ex-