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Show jTTrTrTTTTTTmrni Kr $A,Uplss tSLJs By GECRGS JEAN NATHAN. THE generally accepted theory thru charm is a quality of unconscious un-conscious achievement in other oth-er words, that charm lies in iinsophistK-ation and innocence and that the moment it becomes cognizant cog-nizant of itself it fades promptly into the thin air relics for its persistence on the same critical laziness that, rather than exert itself, continues similarly to f outer and spread the theory that the amateuraetor is not the equal of the professional actor he- i cause the amateur has not enjoyed I the professional's threat experience In i the histrionic arts gained by playing for many years in the master works of Lottie Blair Parker, Charles T. Dazey, Sidney Hosenfeld and Edward E. Rose. ! Charm, of course, Is nothing of the j sort: it is as conscious a quality and as tsudied a negotiation as Don j Juanism or prize fighting. The charm of J. M. Barrie does not spring naively, naive-ly, accidentally, full-fledged, from his pen: Barrie has to coax it. coddle it, work over it and polish it in being in ! quite the same way that Will Rodgers has to polish up his jokes and labori- I ously devise the best manner in which to get them over the footlights. The charm of a pretty woman is not spontaneous; spon-taneous; it is no Topsy that just comes into the world natural-like: it is a thing as carefully studied out as a strategic military operation, a thing composed and edited and re-edited in front of pier glasses and, before poised against the great elect, artfully tried out on many an intermediate baldhead , and harelip. Parallel Is Drawn. And similarly, to come to the theatrical the-atrical case in hand, the charts of such amateur organizations as the Washington Square Players, the Province Prov-ince town Players and the Neighborhood Neighbor-hood Players, uniformly described a-s being the charm of the unsophisticated, unsophisti-cated, is in actuality the charm of the sophisticated, the carefully worked out and shrewdly artless charm that conies from having pondered the rigorous rig-orous Tjucile and Hepner charm of the Broadway professional, from having hav-ing appreciated its chill absurdity and lack of allure, and from having then craftily substituted for this latter grease-paint brand of charm an equally spurious, but fresher and more imaginative, brand. If, into a great ballroom crowded with beautiful women painstakingly coif fed and enamelled and besilked and besatined and draped with diamonds, dia-monds, there should enter a pretty girl in a plain little, blue dress with white linen collar and cuffs, in which direction do you think the" eyes of the men would turn? And not merely turn, but remain? About ten years back, Charles Bel mont Davis wrote a story in which a poor young Cinderella, replying to the fineries of a group of sportive and influential in-fluential bachelor princes as to what in all the world she would most like to be, answered that, for one night, fcshe would like to be the most famous and captivating woman in New York. And how did the princes set about to realize the Cinderella's wish? They S Persuaded the Ziegfeld of the day to allow her to walk out upon the stage k of his lavish production at its most lavish moment out amid all the be-Xp! be-Xp! gemmed and beguaded hussies dressed in a simple tailored skirt and f an equally simple white shirtwaist. Put Into Practice. This is precisely what the. Washington Wash-ington Square Players and the other amateur organizations have done. They have watched for the psychological psycho-logical moment and have introduced intro-duced then, like a bolt from the blue, perfect simplicity into the midst of theatrical garishness and overdisplay. They have capitalized artlessness. like a chorus girl making baby eyes and wondering wJth a wide stare what champagne tastes like. They have introduced, with a high cunning and astuteness. the simple blue dress and white collar and cuffs motif into acting, the tailored skirt and shirtwaist motif into stage production produc-tion and the aft of a woman clever enough to appreciate the droll strategic power of such things Into the whole of their enterprises. A nd out of this clear vision has come all 1 he charm that is theirs, a charm intrinsically as mechanical as it is externally winning, a charm as sophisticated as the charm of a bowl of field clover in the costly boudoir of a wanton, and as vividly impressive and cajoling to the unknowing. un-knowing. . . But we are an absurdly ab-surdly sentimental peonlc. we New Yorkers, and we penqnringly read innocence in-nocence into all things. We admit that a woman may become a shrew out of habit, hut we shrink from the belief that he may, by applying herself equally to the business of charm, becoming charming. Dill Is Interesting. The current bil! of the Washington Souarc Player's Is one of the most i nt cresting they have revealed. The first play on the programme is "Neighbors." by Zona Gale. Though so mew ha t unduly prolix, it yet amounts to a telling study in human rV nature and its reactions to certain fv stimuli. The scene is a small eoun-( eoun-( ' r ry town. The people are a selfish, st ubhoru, vinaigrette lot. There is snai'liti'-', sou ting, backbiting. Into tlie midst of this hirter crew drops suddenly news that a little boy, an orphan from the west, is to come to live in the notice of a neighbor woman, wo-man, a woman In whose life there h;ir. n-.'er he.n a chiid. The promise prom-ise of happiness lo Ibis woman d h w ii s, one hy o i , . , on the s n a r 1 p rs . The neighbor spirit gradually erUes into their hearts. Thev warm, slow-ly. slow-ly. to the feelinc that something must be done to help their neighbor, for, she is very poor, and the com i rig of the orphan hoy, with its happiness, will yet impose an extra .and very real financial burden upon her. And they proceed to their several and individual sacrifices to make that burden the lighter. The second play is t he work of Samuel Kaplan, a newcomer hailing from Chicago, is named "The Critic's Comedy," and is an adroit and diverting di-verting piece of stage writing which holds to a mirror of ridicule, mixed now and again deftly with pity, the case of a woman in the late middle-years middle-years of life who still craves youthful youth-ful admiration and who, to obtain it, is ready to sacrifice money, pride and self-respect. In a manner, the play treats In the vein of comedy -burlesque the subject treated dramatically dra-matically in the Howard-Mizner play, "The Only Law," presented in New York about eight years ago. The story presents us with a passe woman who writes theatrical reviews, with the shiftless young man who has married her in order to live on the money she earns, with the chicane whereby he wheedles funds out of her, with her gullibility in the matter of . even the most transparent flattery and with her eventual seeing through the mockery, but inability, out of vanity, van-ity, to continue to look the situation in the face. The leading role in this little play is handled by Miss Helen Westley to excellent effect. Impressive Drama. The third play is Theodore Dreiser's "The Girl in the Coflin," an impressive impres-sive drama in miniature narrating the meeting of the father of the girl lying dead in the coffin and of her seducer and of the turn in the father's attitude atti-tude under the great stress of a labor problem that confronts the two men and the masses they represent. The piece is well thought out and dramatically dra-matically devised. It holds from curtain cur-tain to curtain. The concluding item is a so-called "pantomime grotesque," entitled "My Lord, the Dwarf." It is the work of Beatrice de Holthoir and J. G. Pi-mentel Pi-mentel and is said to be founded on certain ancient Maya legends. For persons who like so-called "pantomimes "panto-mimes grotesque" founded on certain ancient Maya legends, it will doubt- less have a considerable appeal. I personally constitute but a mediocre critic in such respects. I know little about pantomimes grotesque, and, though holding me overly modest, you may contradict me, actually less about ancient Maya legends. At the Broadhurst, a revival of R. C, Carton's amusing comedy, "Lord and Lady Alg-y," with a cast including includ-ing William Faversham, Irene Fen- j wick, Maxine Elliott and Maclyn Ar- ' buckle. Though, as observed, the play ! still provides an agreeable evening In . the theater, one speculates on the prosperity of revivals in, these days j of war and the economies incidentally i forced upon the playgoing public. The I comparatively short metropolitan duration of the recent revival of "The ! Gay Lord Quex" would seem to indicate indi-cate that, however good the setting and however intrinsically interesting the play revived, the public is indisposed indis-posed at this time to spend money on plays it has already seen. The mood of the public in this connection con-nection would appear to be the mood of the man who can afford only a dollar a week for beverages, and who, to get the maximum fresh adventure out of his dollar, spends It not on the beverages that have cheered him in the past, but on unexplored and cryptic new ones. He prefers to trust to luck and the gambling chance of being elevated in a new way. He already, al-ready, says he to himself, knows the taste and action of the old standbies, so why not spend what small moneys he has on the potentialities of unknown un-known thrills. |
