Evening star., 1933-08-27

"'THE CHALK CIRCLE" said to have
been played in several European
countries. Is a very liberal adaptation
of an early Chinese folk tale. Its au-
thor seems to have been thoroughly in
touch with modern melodrama, how
ever deep his borrowings into Oriental
literature, and there were moments
quite in the manner of The Trial of
Mary Dugan" and other contemporary
court room melodramas The court at
tendants passed the witnesses names
along from the little stage itself to
unseen off-stage detention rooms, and
the Chinese judge, Choo Choo. shouted
objection sustained" just as If he
were presiding in our own criminal
courts.
The story was about a poor little
girl whose mother sold her to the
grasping tong because the father had
committed suicide and there was not
even enough money to bury him. A
handsome young man came to the
house and fell in love at once with
Haitang, but the hard-fisted mandarin.
Nah, bought her away from the young
man and made Haitang his second wife.
And Nah was none other than the re-
lentless tax collector whose exactionS
had driven the child'S father to suicide
The first wife poisoned Nah, accused
Haitang of being the murdereSs, took
Haitang'S baby away from her and pre-
tended that she was its mother. Things
looked very bad for Haitang when the
old Emperor died, anG the young En-
peror, ascending to the throne, ordered
all those condemned to death in the
kingdom to be brought before him and
retired. A touch of the Cinderella
legend entered in when it appeared that
the young Emperor was none other
than the handsome and chivalrous
young man who had met Haitang on
the night she was sold to the tong the
year before! You can finish the story
for yourself.
Miss Adrienne La Champ. who sug
gested very youthful Nazimova, play
ed the part of the gentle heroine with
touching simplicity. With gongs and
evenings entertainment. with enough
ably the little melodrama's exoticism.
MEANWHILE. the Summer theaters
4'A continue to try out new plays
which may or may not be seen later
in Manhattan At Pelham there was
piece about press agents called In
visible Ink" which seems pretty sure to
be seen soon on Broadway, and among
the other suburban try-outs of the week
were wedding Ring" by Clarence
Taylor, at the Lyric Theater, Summit,
N. j.; "A Girl Adrift," by Sidney
Thompson and Harriet Ford. at the
Red Barn Theater, Locust Valley; The
Curtain Rises" by Oskar Rempel. at
the Boulevard Theater. jackson Heights;
The Romantic Sex" by Francis Verdi.
at Caldwell, N. j.. and Queer People"
by John Floyd, at Ferndale, N. Y.
Are Ladies Weak?" tried out nearby
the preceding week, is another piece
that seems pretty certain to be Broad
way bound. and still more likely to
reach Hollywood Its hero. one Phillip
Kent, is Hollywood writer who con-
tends that all women succumb provided
the moment and the method of ap-
proach are right The scene is a Pull
man car bound for Hollywood and the
action is made up of Mr. Kent's ad-
ventures with the several ladies occu-
pying the cars compartments. all of
which are viewed by the audience
There is a stage-struck little girl, dizzy
with movie magazine literature and per-
picked as to how many affairs she must
have before she can hope to become
a successful star: a mature and some
what shopworn nymph searching visit
fully for emotion; a honeymooning
pair embarrassed by the curious eyes
and ears surrounding them, and a pre-
occupied biologists fiancee whom the
dashing Mr.. Kent is taking along with
him as a collaboration
The accidents of the journey carry
Mr. Kent into each of the cars COM
partments. of course. and more or less
into the arms of each of their occu-
pants. 1t is all very roguish. with pa
jamas panties and silk stockings fash
ing here and there, and Mr. Kent prov
ing his theory without subjecting the
ethical code of Mr.. Will Hays to any
painful strain
THE novelist, Louis Bromheld, in his
i new book, The Farm" laments. so
We gather from the reviews. the dis
appearing of integrity" in present-day
American life. We haven't read THE
Farm" but believe that there's just
about as much integrity in this coun-
,ry as ever there was, however the forms
in which it is expressed may have
changed with changing times.
If MI. Bromfeld had been with us
the other afternoon We could have led
him to very pretty little example of
in even so specifically un-
field as Broadway. 1t was
.s--f.A