Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-09-13

/" HIS IS the tnHt0eItn anu tHe
morning for complaints. First
comes a letter from a young
lady Cyoung and healthy to
say that she has disagreed with
this department for years and wants
to say so particularly on account of the
Lionel BARRYMORE film at Keith'S, which
she enioyed no end-Which makes us
very happy. Why should we be pleased
If some one dislikes show when we
do? Second, comes a roaring, hot
epistle from a Guy Robertson to say
that this weeks show at the National
'Is an insult to any ones intelligence" =
and, adds he, Il dare you to print the
above"-the rest of the above" being,
alas, unprintable.
DisagreementS make interesting liv-
ing. Disagreements in the theater
probably keep it af1oat. At any rate, if
disagreements have anything to do with
it. then we can say that because Noel
Coward is SO furiously unpopular with
some people, this fact makes him
doubly popular with others.
Design for Living" at the National
this week. is bound to infuriate some
of the public. Say certain people, Il
dare you to talk about certain things
that don't care to be talked to about"
Then when Mr.. Coward does, they grow
plllh LII lIlt CllcCh, ldhC IL dS oil lil0ulG
and forget some of the nicer wisdom
that he tucks away in all of his plays.
Granted that this weeks show at the
National is not acted to the hilt. it is
yet very servicable presentation of the
original. It proves, too, that the play
Is a play. Mr.. Robertson complains
that he has seen the drunken scene"
and one or two others presented with
much greater fidelity at the Gayety.
With more neutrality-suspicious., yes-but
with thousandth as much wit.
There is no denying that the tempo
of Design for Living" is slow Those
who expect rifles bursting in the air.
and love strewn with will you marry
me, Sarah?" will be disappointed. The
faction" in it is, perhaps, at minimum
Those who do not care to listen to
play. and who do not care for Mr.
Coward's inexplicably adroit manner of
turning lines upside down, will unques-
tionably be offended. Instead of spend
ing their evening popping their eyes
around the stage, audiences must ac-
complish the same with their ears. Few
playwrights have been clever enough to
do this A Mr.. Shaw was one. A Mr..
Coward is the other
If you read the play you will find
that its lines are worth listening to
even if you don't think so at first
seeing" Granted. again. that you may
be annoyed at the triangle situation,
that the moral uncertainty of the piece
goes against all the grains that your
family code has taught you. 10 these
many years, still you are bound to adj
init that three people loving each other
very much" is not perhaps such quaint
idea, as you had at first imagined.
People, of course, have read
thousand things into the play which
aren't there. Mr.. Coward told us, for
instance. last Spring. that the letters
he got about what was supposed to be
in the play were amazing. BY now"
said he in the living room of his Beck
man place apartment. where the water
colorS on the wall paid tribute to his
skill as an artist and the piano in the
corner attested to his ability to make
and create music. Il am beginning to
think that I NEEDN'T have written the
play at all; that all I should have
done was to announce the characters
G1da, Otto and Leo-and the public
would fill in the rest
And how they have filled them in.
The design" at this point is of mag
nifcent proportions
WORD about Mr.. Coward reminds us
that his Bitter Sweet" is coming
to R-K-O Keith's on Friday. Proving
again the amazing versatility of this
battleship travelling celebrity, Bitter
Sweet" presents Herr Coward in his
most sentimental meod and. according
to some, at his incest. On the opposite
side Of the hemisphere from his "Cav-
alcade" or his Design for Living" re-
plete with the music which he is SO fond
OF composing in between his playwriting
hours, this is a ballad of words and
music which presents a picture which
no one could possibly be offended at.
Let those who have worried themselves