Show The Progress of the M i Theatrical Slapstick BY FRANKLIN PYLES FyLES II New York Nov 22 On the upper theatrical levels the earnest endeavor isto Is to interest through oddity In one of ot this weeks new plays in New York Augustus Thomas makes a demonstration of telepathy and andIn andIn andin In another Charles Frohman makes a astar astar astar star actress of Marie Doro Dolo J py y assign assignIng assigning Ing her to the role of a girl so ingenuous ous that she know a single sex sexual sexual sexual ual thing Yet I feel like writing first about an advanced slapstick with apol apologies apologies ogies ogles to the more mental and emotional singularities for keeping them waiting Were the last of the pantomimes with their clown and pantaloon harle harlequin harlequin harlequin quin and columbine so long ago that you have never seen an slap slapstick slapstick slapstick stick In operation It was made of ot a split slat Blat so BO that when anything was waa struck with it that thing being usual usually usually usually ly the part of poor poor old pantaloon that he lIe sat on there was doubled thwack and therefore an augmented amount of laughter The essential idea of the slapstick passed from pantomime into farce and the value of a sudden blow whether cuff kick or spank If only it made a noise has never nevor lessened Dramatic genius now moves the slapstick forward and up upward upward ward ivard In stagecraft Not always do I Ilind find lind readable matter when I go to see new plays made to sell at 60 per cent off Broadway prices but an au afternoon in ill Eighth avenue gave me the advanced slapstick It was in a farce named King Casey An Irishman cast away on an island of Lalla Pa Zaza became its ruler and after awhile took a vacation vaca aca vacation tion trip to New Nev York where a deputation deputation deputation tation of his officials came to recall recal rim 1 m to his throne He was reluctant to i the pleasures of the Ule Tenderloin We Vo have brought the sacred sym symbols SYmbols symbols bols of Lalla LaUa Pa Zaza said the chief chiei of state and struck him on the head heat with them At 1 each stroke there was not alone the thump of ofa a slat on his cranium nor yet merely the additional crack of the split portions of the wood as they came together there were both bothof bothof bothof of those in all their potency of bygone pantomime but besides there was a aclang aclang clang of a bell Mud and resonant as though a gong had been hit with a ahammer ahammer hammer Who says that there is no progress in art on the American stage See the advanced slapstick hear it take note of its power of laughter as used frequently throughout the play and you wont deny tho genius of Aaron A roll Hoffman Koffman Talk of Irving as a master ma matter ter of dramatic effects Hush Or of Be Belasco lusco lasco Shut up Hurrah for Hoffman j if his authorship of King Casey in included included eluded the slapstick Having let myself into the predicament predicament predicament ment of placing King Casey ahead of The Morals of Marcus and The Witching itching Hour I will try tf to wriggle out of it in a single paragraph King Casey is this seasons farce for Johnny Ray nay also for Dan Coleman because the fun of the Ray flay shows largely de depends depends on the ability of Dan to sag his as widely open as Johnny Johnnyy Johnn can and let out as loud noises They make makeup makeup makeup up their faces in comic mic resemblance and their adventure arise always from confused identities This time they are twin brothers Casey one a fireman at atthe atthe atthe the Waldorf the other a guest there and they mug and whoop through a farce of errors with eight chorus men menas menas menas as bellboys eight girls as chamber chambermaids chambermaids chambermaids maids eight more as hello phones and anda p a June Jun May lIa named so in the tine bill because beca se she he looks remarkably like the beauteous Edna May At the mid middle middle middle dle of the evening the action shifts to the Island of Lalla Pa Zaza and to ex extra exI I tra I Another nother paragraph seems necessary before getting to one of the Broadway productions Two tricks are played on the audience The first is i when at the end of a wild western dance accompanying accompanying accompanying a song of Prairie Mary eight ight cowboys grab up eight Marys of the prairie throw them over Oer their backs head downward and dash off the stage At every performance one and the same fellow falls sprawling with his girl and she after pouting a moment as though angered by a real mishap joins In the houses laughter A more elaborate trick is when Johnny Ray sings with June May a song entitled Ill Teach You How Hon the lesson beI be being being I ing in the practice of kissing John Johnnys Johnnys nys flys makeup has been grotesque with some of his teeth black blackened blackened blackened ened to look like dental gaps and his mouth painted to huge dimensions while June has been a genuinely blonde beauty of exceeding delicacy and when they begin to saunter fondly fondl in a gloam with their lips almost touching as they sing sine of osculation it seems as though a shudder of or protest rustles the audi audience audience ence If he were to smack her mouth with his there in the dark I be surprised If hed be hit from the gal gallery gallery gallery lery with an egg tomato or even a atorick h brick Suddenly a calcium throws a alight alight alight light on the students in kissing and it itla ItIs itis Is la seen that Johnny has washed his face lace cleaned his teeth and made him himself himself self elf look fit to kiss the Dresden china June It is a good joke and the fooled audience applauds it That leads up nicely after all aU and iby ihy the way of feminine beauty to Ma Marie Mavie Ia vie rie Doro and from rough to smooth stage diversion to the difference that one block makes maltes between King Ca Casey Cae Casey sey e in avenue and The Mor Morals Morals als of Marcus in Broadway I own ono up tip to being bewitched by Marie Doro Dora but William Gillette daffy datry over her in Clarice dance and he is as old as I am and now C Aubrey Smith quite old enough to know better falls heart over head in love lave l ve with her In the play which puts her into stardom If you bavent seen her big wonder eyes gaz gazing gazing gaz ing out from her little face tace the girlish grace of her slender figure and the childish artlessness of her manner you ou cant comprehend why the audience sneer Oh shaw when as an young woman from a Sy Syrian Syrian Syrian rian harem she professes utter igno ignorance ignorance ignorance rance of mans lust I could discern no sign of cynicism In the sophisticated people who attended at Maries debut where an abler actress who had passed on from slim girlhood to rounded wo womanhood womanhood womanhood manhood would have been guyed Sar Sarah Sarah Sarah ah Bernhardt at 60 Is still satisfactory as the trie e knowing Camille but she would be rejected impolitely as this Carlotta t who who wanders Into the garden of Sir Marcus like a tramp is taken charit charitably charitably charitably ably into his house and stays there to tobe tobe tobe be Its mistress first fin t scandalously though innocently and last as the Sir Knights bride Marie triumphs with her hor personality and she may thank all the gods for her success if she wishes to but it is due duc to Frohman for ex exploiting exploiting exploiting her in a winning g way The ascription of morals presumably good morals by the plays title to Mar lar Marcus 1 Marcus larcus cus is not alit n t a cynical joke The girl waif Valt ail brought 1 by nce to England f H r from the Orient and abandoned loves Sir Marcus from her first sight of him and is sure he loves her she is naively aware of the spell which her beauty weaves over the old bachelor yet she is so Ignorant of passion between the sexes that he might take advantage of her guileless confidence Through it all his morals render her safe with him and it is another man a bad one who turns her to evil account This clever play by an Englishman W J Locke one of originality and its story be interesting in an epitome More than a century ago Mrs Inch balds To Marry or Not to Marry hadan hadan had hadan an bachelor recluse bewitched by bya a runaway little math maid much the same as in this new play That isa isra frequent recourse of playwrights in creating characters for star actors no longer young oung enough for initiative lovers such as Willard Villard in The Professors ProCessors Love Story Crane in The Governor of Kentucky and Gillette in Clarice There is a new twist to it in The Mor Morals Morals als of Marcus though as a star st r dom dominance domInance dominance is ia given to the girl instead of to the man That turns out to be a happy variant because it enables Marie Doro Dolo to be beas beas beas as selfish a comedienne as Lotta Crab Crabtree Crabtree Crabtree tree ever was and pathetically emo emotional emotional emotional also In the second act she dashes into Sir Marcus library in her nightgown barefoot and to tell him there ism isla mouse in her bed and ask him to go back with her as a protector That is an example ample e of her naivette In the third act deceived to believe that Sir Marcus will be assas assassinated ass s by her Syrian pursuers unless she quits his house she runs away with witha a scoundrel in a combination of elope elopement elopement ment mont and abduction so that in the fourth act she may come back forlorn bedraggled still ill III from months In a hospital with wisdom learned from sor sorrow sorrow sorrow row to be taken in again by the old bachelor but to do it this time he be becomes becomeS becomes comes her husband Augustus Thomas was very serious about his latest drama The Tho Witching Hour and his speech on the first night was totally devoid of that levity and wit which are looked for of late years as part of every initial presentation of his work He told us soberly and even rather doggedly that he believes thought to be a dynamic force and he had believed it for twenty bars ars As Asa his a dramatist he felt it his duty to state the fact He had before this expressed ex expressed expressed pressed his faith in osteopathy and used it in the underlying plot of Mrs Irs Boots That was a farcical far farcical farcical cical comedy and succeeded as such ir irrespective Irrespective irrespective respective of Thomas medical theory Now to impress his belief in mental telepathy upon the general mind this accomplished dramatist boldly makes it the theme th me of a play that is tragic in incident and consistently serious In trend and purpose The simplest way is to describe what occurs An even evening evening evening ing party at the luxurious residence of ofa ofa ofa a gambler of gentlemanly demeanor and artistic and intellectual taste is interrupted by the visit of an eminent judge who has reason to suppose that his host may be induced to sell a Corot that adorns the wall No says the judge I could not pay as for it But the gambler has not mentioned a price he has thought of Thus he Ire first discovers the power of his mind upon others This trend of the drama is presently deserted for an incident of quarrelling between two young men of the th party in one of whom the gambler is interested person personally personally personally ally because he is the matrimonial choice of his beloved niece The boy Is 19 hiding his face from a cats eye pin with which the other is pursuing him himI I dont like your face his reeling tormentor says Well I dont like your pin and you youcan youcan youcan can change your pin easier than I can change my face he retorts Thereupon smiting the owner of the with the heavy end of a paper cutter the boy kills him The second act is devoted to plans for the defense of the young oung murderer and more particularly to an insistence in extenuation of his crime on his her hereditary hereditary hereditary aversion to cats eyes This is charged to no prenatal influence but butto butto butto to a peculiarity inherited from a grand grandmother grandmother grandmother mother The third act is a bold expo exposition exposition exposition of Thomas omas theme The gambler now confident of his power of will con concentrates concentrates concentrates his mind upon a single juror so that the boy may escape death by bythe bythe bythe the lack of a verdict If one why not all However can he hope to Influence with his one mind those of twelve intel intelligent intelligent intelligent men Thereupon is introduced the original and striking Idea that will cause discussion of The Witching Hour The gambler knows the prose attorney to have been instrumental I tal In the murder of a of Kentucky and he knows too that his prosecution of this young unintentional murderer is incited by hate because of the culprits success in winning the love of the girl he himself has wooed rather than by an honest sense of duty There Thereupon Thereupon Thereupon upon the gambler plays his hi trump card He has the murder case against the at attorney attorney attorney torney published in a Louisville news newspaper newspaper newspaper paper It will not reach the Jury before It retires to decide upon a verdict But If thousands of people are thinking fet kt atthe the same time that the prosecutor is dishonest and a murderer will not the sweeping concurrence of thought reach those twelve minds In the jury box and control them Mr Thomas says that telepathy will prevail in such a case The boy is ac acquitted acquitted acquitted quitted Presently the attorney enters enter distraught and dismayed by the ruin of his reputation He holds a revolver revolver revolver ver against the breast of the gambler Does that husky hero upper cut him one as Thomas men have been wont to do 10 No He lifts his hand only to turn urn on a strong light above his face He stares steadily an aiM piercingly at his assassin You wont shoot me be Tie says in hr slow measured tones tonea and he You wont even hold that revolver he adds and the man drops It t Then the attorney drawing back and gazing dismayed at the eyes that have nave frustrated his murderous Intentions Intentions intentions says Id like to know how in hell lell you did that and the curtain of the third act falls Augustus Thomas ThomaE thus evolves eoln s a re remarkable remarkable drama of Intellectual problem problem lem em Probably it might be too ab abstruse abstruse for popularity if it were nothing else The author has saved it from that mischance I think by putting humor sentiment and other quite normal things I into nto the first three acts along with the discussions of telepathy and has added a briskly diverting fourth act The play lay serves nerves to make a star actor of John Mason who In turn helps the play by y gambler with graphic skill Some of the think they see Dick Canfield the notorious New NewYork NewYork NewYork York and Saratoga faro banker bank r as the original of Thomas creation because Canfield is an art connoisseur and collector col collector lector but so was Big Mike Murray longer ago Furthermore there are those who declare that the case of the gamblers murder of a gubernatorial candidate resembles reality in Ken Kentucky Kentucky Kentucky tucky So you see there is much to tomake tomake tomake make folks talk bout The Witching Hour French dramatic audacity aS outbreaks two ways here in LEnfant du Mir Miracle Miracle lIr acle Firstly it was ed last Sunday evening hr defiance of this states law which explicitly explicitly explicitly itly forbids every kind of theatrical performance e But there are more thou thousands thousands thousands sands of German voters in this than I can tell teU offhand and so 90 the au authorities authorities 9 have declined to heed the reg regular regular regular ular Sunday performances of plays In InGerman InGerman InGerman German whilst prohibiting them therm In English The indulgence Ind |