"Lena Ashwell Players," with their" second largest industry in the United young chorus-girl, Billie (who is being small stage and sketchy scenery. Mr. States"-bootlegging-whose directors honourably if oddly wooed by the ingenuGODFREY KENTON made a good Robin, and drummers can command a sales ously ambitious comedian, Roy Lane, swift in action and sympathetic in organisation of armed gangsters, ready and unscrupulously hunted down by speech. Mr. PATRICK GOVER'S Prince to persuade purchasers, if necessary, the relentless bootlegger-in-chief, Steve John-not the "broad-shouldered man" and defend their defined "territory Crandall) and her fellow-artiste, whose of the author's description, but a slim, from the competition of rival firms. The intended husband, "Scar" Edwards, sleek popinjay-did his shocking vil- device of setting a grim tragedy against is Steve's rival and victim. lainies with a pleasant air of languor. the background of a cabaret-show in If a serious doubt suggests itself as He was admirably abetted by his sister, rehearsal and in action is, I think, quite to whether full marks should be awarded Elinor (Miss AGNES LAUCHLAN), who novel and handled with remarkable for absolutely strict observance of all retained her bloodless calm throughout dexterity. There seems nothing very the rules of this diverting game, it is due the bloodiest enterprises. unlikely in a man or two's being shot to the impossibility of supposing that between the turns of such a show in a man under the influence of such such an environment; and by keeping deadly fear as Steve could have been The hardest task fell to Miss ESME CHURCH as Shadow-of-a-Leaf, notably in the long concluding lyric, with its insistent triple refrain in each verse, "The Forest has conquered!"-a lyric that cried out to be sung and not said. She brought to her work a very nice intelligence. I have no space to mention other individual performances, but I can say that in their elocution, if not always in their gestures and move ments, the whole company, WELL. on Mr. NOYES' verse-drama was not built for a popular success-it is too well done for that; but I could wishand this is not to imply any reflection on the achievement of the players who performed it under very difficult conditions-that we might have had a chance of seeing it in such a setting as was given to the work of STEPHEN PHILLIPS in the old days when the Managements of our big theatres were less afraid of good writing. O. S. HISELDEN THE GUNWOMAN, U.S.A. Pearl MISS KAREN PETERSON. sufficiently unpreoccupied to continue the pursuit of the blameless Billie. Perfect fear, one feels, effectively casts out lust. Perhaps Mr. BERNARD J. NEDELL Overplayed the fear, though one recognises his dilemma; be had to be the bully turned coward, the ready killer with his nerve steadily broken by the nonchalant detective Dan McCorn's leisurely, indirect and deadly method. The play was most capably produced. Exits and entrances, even the removal of dead and dying-one must allow a little licence in that difficult business-were plausibly contrived. The staircase which led to the dressingrooms cleverly allowed a good deal of reasonable and enlivening movement. As no producer's name appears on the programme one must suspect either or both of the authors to have been responsible for a very effective piece of stagecraft which, more than the individual quality of the actors, carried this show to success. Not that the players were the two strands of humour and grim found wanting. Mr. HARTLEY POWER'S "BROADWAY" (STRAND). seriousness mainly separate, rather detective was a new one on us, and a This imported Broadway, by Messrs. than interwoven-quite in the Shake- most adroit performance. It is always PHILLIP DUNNING and GEORGE ABBOTT, spearean tradition, as a colleague rather difficult to present a villain to must share with the native Ringer of aptly whispered to me-the authors the sophisticated. I don't think Mr. Mr. EDGAR WALLACE the distinction of successfully avoid those distortions NEDELL failed in his difficult task, being the best show of their kind now which the maladroit mixture of the though the earlier and easier phases to be seen in Town. Broadway has two styles is apt to expose to the were more convincing. The cautiouslyperhaps the advantage in that, while critical intelligence. The ingenious curbed sensuality of his passages with nearly as exciting, it is definitely more authors contrive much fun out of the Billie, so easy to scare, was particularly plausible. Nobody can seriously believe strictly professional way in which the well handled. in the Ringer, his disguises, escapes cabaret performers at the very instant, and vendettas, though one can com- not a moment before, the doors are pletely persuade oneself to accept the flung open for their turn, call a halt to illusion while it lasts, which is all that their personal quarrels, love-makings is required for satisfactory entertain- or jollyings, and assume the mask of ment. It is quite possible, on the other their parts. They also artistically conhand, to accept as more than just merely trive contact between the two main plausible this picture of a phase of the groups of folk concerned through the Mr. LUNDEGARD'S vehement "Scar" Edwards; Mr. JOSEPH CREHAN's fleshly "Porky" Thompson, sober or drunk, bluffing or afraid; Mr. CARLO DE ANGELO'S sinister frightened Dolph (these two were lieutenants of the desperate Steve); Mr. WALTER ARMIN'S bullying, cringing Greek cabaret-proprietor, and Mr. BEN "LILIOM" (DUKE OF YORK'S). Herr FERENCZ MOLNAR'S "legend," Liliom, is one of those plays concerning which the critic from whom the fairy godmother has withheld the blessed gift of cocksureness has to ask himself the question, "Is this on balance a good play or a jolly bad one?" Has it, that is to say, in attempting something deeper than its surface mean DISHONOUR AMONG THIEVES. Liliom. MR. IVOR NOVELLO. he has been kind to her, with the handsome vagabond who has just lost his job, the best in Liliom (which was never very good) rises to the surface. Abandoning his usual technique of promise of marriage in favour of the actual thing, he swells with pride at the thought of his approaching fatherhood. Seriously contemplating an adventure which involves the elimination of a cashier by way of raising funds, he visualises the result of his project and the real dark background of his own soul while he sleeps between the preliminary dallying with the idea of highway robbery with murder and the settling of the details. with his wholly villainous friend, Ficsur. M. THEODORE KOMISARJEVSKY must have thanked the gods for such a chance of proving how the significance ings, succeeded well enough, or has it | ployer. But when little Julie, so simple | of a scene can be heightened by the profailed to such a degree that one is forced as not to understand what is involved ducer's elaborations, and he fairly let definitely to wish that the author had in being shut out from her employer's himself go. The piece opened with a not essayed something so far beyond home for the night to spend it, because prologue, in which for seven or eight his powers? Seeing that it holds the attention to the last sentence, with the help certainly of M. KOMISARJEVSKY's imag inative scenery, lights and noises, one may, I think, hazard the kindlier judgment, with no more than the mere hint, in devil's advocacy, that the texture of Liliom's dream was altogether too coherent and sophisticated for verisimilitude -so coherent, in truth, that the disclosure of the fact that it was a dream, and not some bizarre exercise in the Expressionist mode, came to us with the suggestion of a rather unfair piece of spoof or theatrical sharp practice. The scene is set in the outskirts of Budapest. Liliom is bellman and crier to a roundabout show-a handsome ne'erdo-well, who has been jugged more than once. His scanty earnings are supplemented by the contributions of servant-girls and that unashamedly sensual Jewess, his em minutes we were subjected to the blare and glare and press of a crowd among the booths and side-shows of a fair by night. I think we had more of this than was necessary to produce atmosphere without the reaction of boredom; though what was done was done well enough. The most successful setting was the sombre railway embankment, with the arch through which the sinister silhouettes of the industrial quarter of the city gloomed in the distance, a combination of realism with expressionism which was entirely successful-except that, to be captious, the galloping horses of the mounted policemen were obviously not approaching but merely marking very quick time just OFF. The hall of judgment or higher police-court, where the defiant Liliom was questioned as to his action and motives and doomed to revisit the earth, after a six his they don't show me any more, thank for if you want to have an easy time "So does mother," said one of the teen years' purgatory, to see daughter, was admirably presented, and this scene alone was a sound demonstration of the new magic that the dramatist who will take the risk of experimenting may now command. No "Yes, but it's different," Warder exdoubt, though, our playwrights are too "It's agreeable to succeed, of course," plained. "Mother doesn't like you to deeply conscious of the hatred of their said his mother; "but the conditions be disobedient; but that's the end. countrymen for anything that they can-are far from ideal. You have a long These people, if you're disobedient, not understand without effort to take journey there and back; you are cramped whack you and tie you up, and go out chances that do not dismay their Con- for room; you get no proper exercise; for walks without you. Nothing's so if you see an old friend, or a brother or dull as that." It did not seem to me that the trans-sister, or even one of your own children, lators' work had been plausibly done. there may be no opportunity of any It is, we know, difficult to avoid the talk at all; while all the time you are American idiom nowadays, but I think at the disposal of the people who crowd Liliom, an exceedingly primitive and in to stare, many of them totally ignorunsophisticated soul, was the last person ant-merely inquisitive-and some so to be capable of breaking out into it, as debased as to call you 'Doggie.' he constantly did. tinental brethren. Mr. IVOR NOVELLO continues his uneven but, I think, on the whole, upward course. He is surprisingly good at moments; surprisingly conventional or careless or obvious at others. Liliom was alive, however, and that is much to achieve. Miss FAY COMPTON presented to us with her too-accustomed skill the adorable simplicity, gentleness and tenderness of little Julie, with her stiffening of real character. Mr. CHARLES LAUGHTON as the unredeemed and scarcely credible villain, Ficsur, gave us a soundly full-blooded piece of work. Miss BERYL HARRISON'S Marie, Julie's friend, kindly but with a shrewder eye to business, was well done; and Mr. DOUGLAS JEFFERIES made an excellent thing of Wolf, the hotel porter, afterwards the successful restaurateur. Miss VIOLET FAREBROTHER cleverly made us conscious of the meanness and grossness of the proprietress of the merrygo-round, Mrs. Muskat. I ought, I think, also to mention Mr. DOUGLAS BURBIDGE'S successful rendering of the ring-and-umbrella turn in the fair scene. To the increasing number of those who are interested in theatrical technique I would strongly recommend this stimulating affair. T. "WARDER OF ALDINGWORTH" AGAIN. AFTER the conversation with his mother that I was able to report the other day, Warder's first question was whether any of his brothers and sisters were still there. When he had left the kennels there had been two of each. Still, to take a first!" said Warder. "Yes," replied the mother, "that's a compensation, provided the judge gives it for the right thing. But all this about Shows you'll find out some day for yourself, for you 're a splendid fellow and I'm very proud of you. Don't ever let that tail droop." My ears aren't quite as upright as Same old dad?" Warder asked. Have you been disobedient?" another puppy asked. "I was, said Warder; "but no longer. It doesn't pay." "What was the naughtiest thing you ever did?" they all wanted to know. "I stole eggs," said Warder. "They're awfully good: raw eggs. I found a place to get them." What happened?" "They were furious. They seem to think more of eggs than anything, even meat. The gardener saw me and the cook beat me. You must remember about gardeners. They are very dangerous, because you never know where they are and therefore whether or not they are watching you. Masters and mistresses are simple problems, because they have habits; but gardeners hide behind bushes and watch." "And cooks?" asked an eager voice. "Cooks are frightfully important," said Warder. "Whatever you do, don't make an enemy of the cook." THE FIRST STEP. E. V. L. [A doctor declares that children should be encouraged to get out of breath as an aid to "I suppose there's still no chance of their physical development. seeing him?" Warder continued. It seems funny that none of us have Nice?" replied his mother. "He's "Any of them as good as me?" When they heard who Warder was "Of course," said one, "mother's told us a lot. But it's more interesting coming from you. What are they like?" "Who?" asked Warder. "No," said his mother, "they've all gone. They went at once. Our strain is so good, you know. Where they went I haven't a notion, and unless any of them are sent back for a holiday, the same as you, I don't suppose I'll ever "They. Masters and mistresses." see them again. In the old days I "They're all right," said Warder, used to catch up with the family now"if you behave. But they 've got one and then, by chance, at Shows. But peculiarity that you must watch out GOOD wife, you wrong me when you say With James, our prodigy, By my too furious pace It is not thoughtlessness; the deed's That I may serve the training needs He'll win, when many a romping game And bless me for my care. When week by week he gains a prize, The Woman. "JUST LIKE A MAN! YOU LET ME SIT HERE SOAKED TO THE SKIN WHILE YOU CRAWL INTO THE ONLY BIT OF SHELTER TO BE HAD." OUR BOOKING-OFFICE. (By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks.) LIKE the Bridget Elia of Old China, I think it is a pity when poor people of taste become "rich and finical." This notion I have just had transatlantically confirmed by Mr. JOSEPH HERGESHEIMER, who has produced a record of his rise from impecuniosity to wealth as reflected in the house he lives in. The first part of the record is whimsical and charming. It relates how the writer and DOROTHY his wife bought an eighteenth-century stone house in Pennsylvania and embarked on a life of struggle and incident. "I could come nearer to selling a story, without actually bringing it about, than anyone else alive," writes Mr. HERGESHEIMER triumphantly. As for DOROTHY, she cooked, filled the lamps and sang duets with the coloured boy who washed up, with inimitable grace. "Looking back, it seems to me, that to a great extent the difficulties were the pleasures." Literary successes, however, put an end to this idyll and ushered in the upheaval which it is the main business of From an Old House (HEINEMANN) to describe. The Dower House, to an old-world eye, is not particularly attractive. Most English villages boast a vicarage or a farm-house or two on the same Georgian lines. But I can well credit its original "thoughtful" charm; and I can well believe that it "wasn't as thoughtful as formerly," after it had been gutted and restored. When this was accomplished DOROTHY took to fancy-dress, a red wig, a "victrola" and a lip-stick; and "no wrens would enter the house, on its white pole, which Mr. Okie (the architect) had provided." Personally I don't blame them. The chronicle is illustrated with costly and successful photographs and written with affectionate care. Its agonies usually inspire a much more pleasing style than its exultations. I know that Miss MARGARET DELAND generally loves her own characters so much that her readers inevitably take the infection and love them too. Therefore with joy 1 seized the opportunity of meeting The Kays (CAPE)—young Arthur with his conscience and his pride; his mother with her bleak high principles and her courage and her poor mad Mary nursed in the attic under the roof; and his father, Major Kay-"Beau Kay"-with his lotteries and his drinking and his eye for fineness in other people. I loved too Lois Clark, the little girl from next-door who was Arthur's faithful sweetheart, and her gallant mother, and the cosy conventional charm of their family life, which throws into such high relief the strange, divided, secret-haunted household of the Kays. The story takes place in a small American town-that old Chester Miss DELAND has described so charmingly already-in the days of the struggle between North and South, but it could be no more living and vivid if it dealt with the men and women and heartbreaks of today. Arthur, made reticent almost to the point of stupidity by the hardships of his childhood, suffers all his life from having to stand by his mother's stark definitions of right and wrong-she is a thinker far in advance of her generationand from being too proud to explain his conduct. Lois loves him in spite of his apparent cowardice and dishonesty, and he believes that she has really understood him, and so comes tragedy. It is difficult to credit that his words could quite so often have meant one thing and conveyed something widely different to a girl who knew and loved him as Lois did. When she asks him to deny a theft, and he answers, "I can't," when "I won't" was what he really meant, it becomes a little unreal. I feel that Miss DELAND has here stretched probability too far, letting a serious blemish spoil a very delightful book and leaving me between gratitude and grumbling, but nearer to gratitude. |