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Show By GEORGE JEAN NATHAN. IN the several plays revealed most recently to the metropolitan metropoli-tan public there is little for the critic to consider. They pre-t pre-t sent, rather, fodder for the mere t chronicler of theatrical tid bits, the Jl fellow whose profession consists in -' describing the lending lady 's chemises, the plans for the leading man's lavish new summer home on Long island and the latest antic of Elsie Janis's mother. To the person per-son who looks on tho stage as being be-ing of somewhat higher stature : than a mere picnic ground for lost wills, young women who successful-ly successful-ly pass themselves oft" for men by 'Vhe simple device of putting on a rViir of trousers, and tattered or-I1, or-I1, V.in children who, immediatelv , V.v take a bath and put on a de-f, de-f, !iitt't llross capture tho duke's heart . I" such a person what has latelv 5'n uncurtained in New York is "' jlancholy and indigestible stuff, 'ecimen No. 1 is called -'ifTrauger Than Fiction." It is , Housed in the Garrick and is the it-fir second effort at playwriting of E. H. Sothern, the actor. Intended as satire, the play is satirical, true enough, but in a direction other than that intended by author. Jt shows us that when' thefactor essays es-says a satirical stage composition the satire often resolves itself into a satire of himself, his beliefs and his talents. For this effort of Mr. Sot hern 's is not only of an exceptionally excep-tionally futile aud inept result, hut it also discloses to the spectator the excessively artificial attitude toward to-ward the stage, toward life and toward to-ward dramatic literature maintained main-tained by Mr. Sotheru. Is Childish Selection. Utilizing a theme similar to that employed most lately in the native theater bv Hamilton and Thomas in their play "The Big Jdea" the idea, to wit, of exhibiting to the audience a playwright in the act of writing a play, with the play worked out aud enacted before the audience's eyes Mr. Sothern has made of the whole business an unintentional un-intentional piece of nonsense by his absurdly childish selection of materials ma-terials out of which to build his play within the play. The resulting result-ing impression is confusing where )t is not plainly breeding of ennui., and the evening drags and totters laboriously to its conclusion. Tt would appear and unmistakably unmistak-ably from an appraisal of the two plays which Mr. Sothern has so far contributed to the American stage that he is much too deeply im-mersed im-mersed in the tawdry artificialities of the showshop to write a play worthy of the serious critical at-teirHii. at-teirHii. Or, indeed, worthy of the .Jntion of the more casual but .discriminating patron of the the-, the-, at.er. With this play the Garrick rJT theater inaugurated its tenancy bv -'..Vfc he Craig stock company of 'Bos-f 'Bos-f t'3e ra'g stock effmpany citBoston expects to gain a sub-siTial sub-siTial hearing in New York it will be necessary for the Craig stock companv to discover a vastly vast-ly better grade of drama than this, and it will be further necessary for the directors of that company to discover much more capable actors than those it at present enjoys in its roster. Materials Antiquated. Specimen No. - is "Pals First," a dramatization by Lee Wilson Dodd of a noval by the same name hy Francis Perry Elliott, and on view in the Fulton theater. The materials out of which this exhibit is made are somewhat too antiquated anti-quated to pop even the yokel eye and these materials have been further fur-ther considerably deleted of what force they may originally have contained by a juicy injection of the optimistic glucose that is believed, be-lieved, in many managerial quarters, quar-ters, to be essential to the prosperity pros-perity of the box office. The story of the opus concerns a tramp who is mistaken for the owner of a southern country house, who conducts con-ducts himself for one act as the owner nf the house and who turns out in the last act really to be the owner. The manner in which the fable fa-ble is worked out takes from the story, as I have said, most of what interest-holding tonics it might otherwise oth-erwise have possessed. The best scene in the play is one acted in by Thomas Wise and Miss Auriol Lee, as a deaf lady, during dur-ing the course of which Mr. Wise conducts coincidental a conversation conversa-tion fortissimo for the benefit of the lady aud a conversation pianissimo pian-issimo for the amusement of the audience. au-dience. .The role of the southern gentleman masquerading as a tramp is in the hands and clothes of William Wil-liam Courtenav. Mr. Wise and Miss Lee are the Wst members of an otherwise undistinguished cast. Not Badly Done. Specimen No. 3 is called "The Brat," is visible in the Harris theater the-ater and is the work of the erstwhile erst-while vaudeville danseuse, Miss Maude Fulton. Miss Fulton also plays the central role. This central cen-tral role is not badly done; it discloses dis-closes an amusing sense of broad humor and indicates that were Miss Fulton to work with a good collaborator col-laborator the result might be an entertaining en-tertaining play of the popular sort. The difficulty with the present play, however, is that Miss Fulton has directed di-rected all her energies to the building build-ing up of the central role and has completely neglected what surrounds, sur-rounds, or rather should surround, that role. " The play, as a consequence, conse-quence, fails to hold. What story there is concerns a novelist who brings Miss Fulton into his home for the purpose of studying the type she represents the usual tattered tat-tered liytle street wit and the love affair that blooms between the waif and her protector 's - younger brother. Miss Fulton should in the future forego dalliance with society debutantes debu-tantes and such like characters of her present play and confine herself her-self to such subjects as, from points in this present play, one judees she could adroitly and effectively handle. han-dle. For example, there is a genuinely genu-inely amusing play to be written some dav around the folk of the vaudeville halls they are a race by themselves and Miss Fulton 's seems a likely hand for the job. Let her get into touch with a ray- I I ; "IDLE WIVES" IS ATTRACTION AT STRAND S . tt ' i'-i'i i."V '.5T X i TV (- - " - i I J I' '4 At f ' It 1 f W'" ' -iJ, f f ' . " , . i LI v V y , v ' i - 4 $ 4 f h -J 1 i - - ? - yH Lois Weber ajid prominent members of the cast in a scene from "Idle Wives," -which opens at the Strand theater this afternoon. wright like Tom Barry, say, and one may well wager the play that comes out of their joint undertaking undertak-ing will bo a thing of many chuckles. Work . Is Creditable. Miss Fultoiij whatever tho numerous nu-merous and signal deficiencies of her first play, need by no means feel ashamed of her-work. She has written a better character and a more humorous and genuine one than Mr. Manners wrote in "Peg AT THE PARAMOUNT-EMPRESS , 0' My Heart." She has written, also,' a much better plav than has her actor-colleague, Mr. Sothern. It will be something of a pity, therefore, there-fore, if she doesn 't save' herself from her own affectations, if she doesn't convince herself that she should sidestep the impulse to write of persons of whose lives and tus-. tonis she is uninformed, and if she doesn 't .write that study of the most bizarre, most exotic, animals in all the human zoo, the vaude-villians. vaude-villians. Lewis Stone, John Find-lay Find-lay and Edmond Lowe give Miss Fulton efficient support. his earlier days. Again, there is James Rutiidge, the bull-necked art critic, ' ' born, bred and reared in an atmosphere atmos-phere that does not tolerate' purity of thought,''1 who covets the sweet young girl of the mountains whose character typifies their beauty, purity and strength. b . Besides there are John Vrillard, the convict, who plays an important part in the story, after his escape to the wandering wan-dering life of the hills; Myra Willurd, a pitiable bit, of flotsam on the sea of humanity, and Brian Oakley, the forest Kv . C t . ' - - - . . J " " k " , , 1 i . ';K Vi 1 ' (FAMOUS PLAYERS -PARAMOUNT thriller in this super photoplay of "The House of Mystery," wherein Pat rescues res-cues Kelly from the gas cell. A Harry Palmer cartoon comedy and "See America First," showing the rocky coast of Oregon, makes a well-balanced bill for the Mehcsy for today. Tomorrow's Tomor-row's programme has William V. Mong the Universal favorite, in thetwo-reel western, "The Daring Chance. "The Perils of Our Girl Reporters" are on the same bill, entitled the "Meeting," with two comedies. Tuesdays are the comedy days at the Mehesy.' The best comedies of the leading producers are shown here on this day. They consist I in part of the Essanay two-reel special, "Police," with Charlie Chaplin; the two-reel Fox comedy, "Chased Into Love," by Hank Mann; "Mutt and Jeff," Bud Fisher's cartoon; a Christy comedy with Betty Oompson, the Saft Lake girl, in the cast, and a Pathe scream, "Lonesome Luke." Wednesday Wednes-day is big feature day. "The Terror," with Jack Mulhall in the lead. A New York giinfighter squares himself. Thursday's feature is William S. Hart in a western drama. SUNDAY only, at the Broadway, Frank Borzage aud Anna Little will appear in the great western drama, "Immediate Lee," a virile vir-ile production full of human interest and realistic western atmosphere. This in addition to the tenth chapter of "The Great Secret," the thrilling romance ro-mance in which Francis X Bushman and Beverly Bayne are starred. 'Immediate Lee" is one of those big, thrilling, picturesque western dramas which have been disappearing from the screen. Its plot is full of punches, big situations, with suspense hung on a thread of true heart throbs. "Immediate" Lee, who gets his name from his ability to handle the revolver, is discharged from his position of foreman fore-man at the E-Bar-E ranch through the schemings of John Masters and Kentucky Ken-tucky Hurley, two brand blotters who fear to lose their iobs through Lee's knowledge of their dishonesty. Hostilities between the three and especially es-pecially between "Immediate" and Hurley are heightened by their love for the same girl, Beulah, a' dancer. When brought face to face with her choice, she chooses Lee, and the sullen rejected lover swears revenge. His opportunity comes soon after. He trais "Immediate" alone, ties him and slashes his mouth with a ghastlv cut to give him a permanent "wide smile." Lee is carefully cherished back to health by Beulah, the dance hall girl. And when he is well he swears a terrible punishment upon the man who has disfigured his face for life. Implacable as fatej Leo trails Hurlev from town to town, from ranch to ranch. The guilty man, coward that he is, feels sure that his end has come, and knows that if Lee does take his life, it will be the judgment of heaven upon him, and he proceeds terror haunted on his way of trying to escape. At length the two men are brought face to face. Hurley crawls before the man whom he has injured. Lee prepares pre-pares to end his miserable existeue'e, ' but is halted ,by Beulah, who intercedes and saves Kentucky Hurley from the death which comes later in a fierce encounter between the brand blotters and the police. The end of Hurley brings peace and happiness to "Immediate" "Im-mediate" Lee and Ueulnh, the dance hall girl. The little western dance hall is turned into a chapel and there the words are spoken that make them man and wife. |
