The Play
S., R. Dana Skinner, H.L.
586 THE COMMONWEAL October 20, 1926 THE...
...At that time, I remember comedienne's superb facility...
...Marc Loebell shows an satile actors...
...Someone, possibly the Norman Geddes, Robert Edmond Jones, and other masters of author, possibly the producer, has tried to bolster up the scafthe art...
...That point is settled beyond doubt...
...She does not accomplish what being quite delighted with the swift satire of the first act and many fine artists have done in poor plays--make at least one dismally disappointed by the commonplace bedroom farce ma- part stand out with reality and distinction...
...tomorrow's...
...586 THE COMMONWEAL October 20, 1926 THE PLAY By R. DANA SKINNER The Neighborhood Season Starts object through encompassing the infidelity of the lion tamer's W ELL-repertory up-to-date has started once more in wife...
...Finding the lions as unwilling to talent...
...and, lastly, that amazing degree of unselfish Hulicius as the lion tamer, bears heavily the mark of the devotion which alone can bring working harmony to a group amateur...
...Briefly, The Lion Tamer is the nadir of The Dybbuk...
...She makes many attempts at comedy in the style of My impressions of the play have not changed since seeing Laura Hope Crews-and falls considerably short of that the original French production...
...In so far as choice of plays is important interested in the definite attempt of this theatre to produce a permanent playing company, to present an alternation of new in the program of a repertory theatre, the Neighborhood has gotten off to a discouraging start...
...The Sands, as the lion tamer's wife, is obviously miscast as to idea itself is plausible, but it obviously needs for its successful general type, but manages by sheer intelligence and versatility realization, first, the right plays ; second, intelligent and verto give a satisfactory performance...
...third, interesting production methods...
...carry...
...Its implications remain, as in life in fomenting revolutions which failed to come off, is now the book, something for the worldly wise to look wise about...
...return to New York an incredibly stupid play by Dorrance Unusual stage settings and production methods have also Davis, in which one Stella Amaranth goes to many lengths of been conspicuous features of past Neighborhood seasons...
...Apparently some managements entertain the theory that the fashionable region of Grand Street...
...For the moment, we are sible justification...
...The notion that the king can do no wrong is outmoded, to say the be produced above Thirty-ninth Street and somewhere south of Sixty-fifth...
...Among directors, Miss Agnes Morgan ranks highly, and the NeighThe Shelf ' borhood has shown every disposition to summon outside assistance when the type of play demands it-The Dybbuk being F RANCES STARR has selected as the vehicle for her a case in point...
...The fibbing and intrigue to prove that as a mistress of feminine stage designs of Mrs...
...of satire in the third act could not dispel...
...As Lorelei-the name, you may remember, "of a revolt as oppressed humans, he tries to accomplish the same famous woman who sat on a rock in Germany"-Miss Walker...
...Albert Carroll confirms the suspicion that in "straight by nature temperamental...
...The Shelf is apterial of the second-a disappointment which the resumption propriately named...
...fourth, improved range in a difficult part, but, in company with Otto expert direction...
...season, a translation of Alfred Savoir's "satirical fable," The Of the acting of Miss Starr herself, it seems rather cruel Lion Tamer, recently produced in Paris with the effervescent to form any present estimate based on the load she tries to Spinelly in the leading role...
...plays with revivals and lyric dramas, and to capture the nucleus, at least, of a permanent audience for this varied form of en- On the side of acting, there is some cause for further disappointment...
...The theory is of wonder and discussion among New York's theatre-goers, the illusion has been dispelled that all successful drama must as false as its corollary is tainted with subtle egotism...
...This leaves only the players themselves and the folding by a few daring remarks which, happily, fall upon plays---which leads us to the first production of the present ears already deafened by boredom...
...The main ideaapart from the second act digression-is an amusing conflict Gentlemen Prefer Blondes between the eternal idealist, to whom the means employed THIS is a literal transplanting to the stage of Anita Loos's finally become far less important than the attainment of a book of the same name-which means that it is not a desired end, and the practical energetic man of action who play at all, but simply a series of incidents strung together with accepts things such as they are and adapts his life from mo- the object of displaying to advantage that champion goldment to moment...
...Will it succeed...
...Dorothy There are many elements to be taken into account...
...Of course, many devoted pilgrims had dis- least...
...To detail the crude progexecutive staff members of the theatre, have attracted inter- ress of the plot-enough of it, if rightly used, for three or four national attention, and can be compared only with those of plays-would serve no useful purpose...
...Aline Bernstein, one of the permanent charms she is not yet on the shelf...
...Taking the last first, the Neighparts" he is as uninteresting and ineffective as he is provocaborhood group is a shining example of practical good will...
...The attempt is a valiant one...
...tive and skilful in character roles and parts demanding stylized The star of today's performance will decorate the chorus of acting...
...Ian Maclaren, as Lord Lonsdale, is at his besttertainment...
...following a circus in the hope of seeing the lion tamer eaten It is by no means as innocent as most of its lines...
...Few plays more obviously belong there...
...a mature and expert rendition of a satiric type...
...The last of the Lonsdales having spent his digger of all time, Lorelei Lee...
...The second act is taken up with this trite situation...
...by his lions-this end epitomizing for him the just revolt of For June Walker it offers a chance to display a versatile the brutally oppressed...
...Ever since The cleverness covers a multiplicity of bad taste, and a corollary Dybbuk brought forth last year the best powers of the Neighthat what is cheap in the .cups of a commercial manager beborhood Playhouse and made that little institution a centre comes nectar in the goblets of the art theatre...
...The Savoir play has its moments of delightful and promising satire in the first and third acts ; but without an covered the modest glories of Grand Street long before The amputation of the second act, the play as a whole has no posDybbuk-but that is another story...
Vol. 4 • October 1926 • No. 24
