Evening star., 1933-04-23

Mai we were not more depressed
by Mr.. Maughams lugubrious
i dered" Is perhaps because he
makes us conscious all the while
that we are in q theater. At no time
are his players able to persuade us
that their trials are real, not merely q
cluster Of woeful puppets and circum-
stances smoothly and mechanically
manipulated. It is obviously absurd, as
Mr.. Brown has pointed out, to object to
the theater because it Is theatrical.
Emphasis and exaggeration are tradi-
tional, legitimate and essential. But in
a play whose motive Is as honest as
that Of For Services Rendered" it
seems better that 1t should be as free
as possible from imputations OF artful-
ness. Mr.. Vaughan, Of course, Is not
to be accused Of duplicity. He would
not, am sure, intentionally try to
f1imflam an audience, no matter how
justifiable the provocation. Long con-
tact with the stage and its expedients,
however, has caused him the astigma-
tisn ever epidemic among playwrights
and reviewers, and his vision has be-
come a little diseased by the lights
and colors. Few dramatists, not ex-
cepting the austere and aloof Mr.. Gals
worthy, have escaped the baneful ef-
fects Of continued association with the
theater's prosperous artiflcialties. Most
of them think and write in terms of the
platform, forgetting the supposed fra
ternity of the drama and life. my
self am sympathetic to their situation
because I know that all my own per-
sonal and professional affectations, pos
lures, shams and trickeries are due to
my having spent most Of my life in an
orchestra chair.
After all, it IS the business of so
good a playwright as Mr.. Vaughan to
be a mirror into which We can look
and see ourselves and nature reflected
with comparative accuracy. 1t is his
duty to tempt us to exclaim, as we
the grace of God, am II" The real
art Of the drama, if may be permit
ted to guess so, Is to tell the truth
without assembling, in the process, any
more than is necessary. To keep prob
ability in view" and to make the in
credible seem credible. This, in the
dismal enthusiasms of For Services
Rendered" Mr.. Vaughan neglects to
do. The result is that the play Is a
conscientious frame-up, skillfully ar
ranged and explicitly presented, sincere
in its intentions, but fraudulent in its
habits.
In FOr services ftenQeTeQ MI.
Vaughan casts a dyspeptic though an
eagle eye on a suburban British house
hold after the war. Miss Fay Banter.
as a thwarted spinster whose lover has
died for King and country, is to be seen
catering desperately to her blinded
brother Cleo CafrolD, who has lost his
sight In Flanders fields. Harry Daniel,
who once commanded a torpedo boat
and won medals for valor, has been dis
charged from the navy and is operating
an improbable village garage and
petrol station. Miss Jane Wyatt is
there as a cold, warm, handsome and
irresolute postwar ingenue, eloping
reluctantly with Walter Kingsford. as
lecherous old profiteer. Richie Ling
Is present as her genial, shallow and
self-satisfied John Bull father, as IS
Miss Jean Adair as her patiently un-
derstanding mother. When Mr.. Daniel,
bankrupt and with his back to the wall,
begs for money to pay his debts, Eng
land forgets his rendered services, with
appropriate excuses. So, being in a
hopeless jam, he blows his brains out,
and Miss Banter, who has, meantime,
fallen in love with him, goes mad.
While all Of this is proceeding Percy
| Warran, as bestial member OF the
family, cuts drunken and animal capers
with Miss Wyatt, WHO processes to be
both charmed and disguised by his
amorous advances.