The Play
Skinner, R. Dana
216 THE COMMONWEAL December 29, I926 ii i THE PLAY By 1L DANA La Locandiera G I~AMOUR still hangs over the doings of the Civic Reper- tory Theatre down on Fourteenth Street....
...It is one of those old plays in which everyone indulges in asides, takes the audience into his or her confidence and has unlimited freedom for the milder sorts of horse-play...
...T HIS is not a book for which one can prophesy the lively and wide-spread response now being given The Story of Philosophy...
...CONTRIBUTORS HARVEY WXCKHAM is an American novelist and journalist residing in l~ome...
...Must we always follow the pattern of the Province-towners' fashion and spoof an old-fashioned play from the alleged superiority of today...
...Before one's eyes, she literally became two persons mystically blended in one body...
...None of the parts is of a character to strain acting talent...
...The Dybbuk T HE high spot of last season was the Neighborhood production of Ansky's Dybbuk--a play of mystical illusion set among a sect of Jews known as the Chasslds...
...It might be given a most highly stylized production, in which the charm would spring from the con-sclous unreality of the atmosphere created...
...But it all comes off with a sure touch and some excellent satire and makes for a thoroughly enjoyable two hours and a half...
...The most important change is the substitution of Betty Linley in the part of Leah, created last year by Mary Ellis...
...Miss Le Gallienne has not elected to give it such a production...
...It is good to know that a theatre like that exists, that one can go to it when surfeited with Broadway, and that one will always find there commendable work, swift enthusiasm and plays for the most part with tested value...
...Variety is added by the appearance of two actresses who try, most unsuccessfully, to impersonate great ladies...
...Coming to realism, this, in technical circles at least, is the...
...In another respect, too, this year's performance suffers...
...Later, when December 29, I926 THE COMMONWEAL 217 the Dybbuk has entered into her and speaks through her lips, one must have the peculiar sense of heating a man's voice come through the mouth of a woman...
...But why should she...
...Somewhat to his amazement, he is requisitioned for the job, and the complications which ensue are not unlike those which might follow the importation of Will Rogers into a Balkan kingdom as its ruler...
...Regarding naturalism in general, Professor Perry says: "In any given epoch of human thought, philosophical naturalism will reflect those scientific generalizations which have altered the common beliefs of men, whether through redrafting the cosmic picture or through reconstituting the fundamental habits of mind...
...It consists, in the strict sense, in "the view that to be and to be known are one and the same...
...Mirandolina conquers the cavalier for the express purpose of humiliating him and in the end defies all logic, except feminine logic, by marrying her faithful servant, Fabrizio...
...REv...
...Eldorado is in need of a king, the recent incum- bent having died while on "foreign duty...
...for that is the scope of this book...
...216 THE COMMONWEAL December 29, I926 ii i THE PLAY By 1L DANA La Locandiera G I~AMOUR still hangs over the doings of the Civic Repertory Theatre down on Fourteenth Street...
...For which a vote of thanks...
...In scrutinizing these strands of recent thought the author displays what is, for an American writer at least, a truly astounding erudition as to what is going on in Germany, France, Italy and England, as well as America...
...A Tankard of Ale...
...The last living descendant of the line, it appears, is a certain American cow- boy named John North...
...She does not create the illusion of duality...
...Y'~ATI~ERINE BRI~GY, critic and poet, is the author of The Poet's Chantry...
...The first is impoverished, the second rich and susceptible, the third a confirmed woman-hater...
...Not much can be said of the rest of the cast beyond the fact that they do the work assigned to them with gusto and sufficient ability...
...Its revival this year as part of the regular Neighborhood repertory will be doubly welcome to those who failed to see it last year and to undergo the rather thrilling experience which its sincere and poignant production contributed...
...A marquis, a count, and a cavalier are guests in Mirandolina's inn...
...Walter Duggan, Helen Coburn, and Anne Schmidt are the particular bright lights of the performance...
...FREDERICK H. MARTENS, critic, is the author of I001 Nights of Opera...
...But Mr...
...and Carmichael...
...In her final death scene, when, after the exorcism of the Dybbuk, her soul is veritably drawn from her body to join that of her lover, Miss Ellis made one see the struggle of spirit to free itself from matter, a heart-rending and yet triumphant moment...
...SKINNER Howdy King e~ A NNE NICHOLS presents"--a formidable challenge 2-k to the high-brows and the specialists and to all those who refuse to judge a play on its own merits and within its own kind...
...By no means...
...THEODORE MAYNARD is an English author now residing in America...
...but this shows itself in the arrangement of the whole and in emphasis, and not so much in opinions or comments, overtly expressed...
...The Trumpet Shall Sound T HE American Laboratory Theatre, under the direction of Richard Boleslawsky, has presented as the third bill of its repertory season an allegorical play by Thornton L. Wilder along the not unfamiliar lines of the Servant in the House, and the Passing of the Third Floor Back...
...D. W. FXSHEE, formerly of the department of philosophy at Dartmouth, is now a general contributor to American magazines...
...It is well worth a visit to the theatre to catch the delightful mood of La Locandiera...
...and Poets and Pilgrims...
...But the play is still great...
...9 M. VZR~LL is an English contributor to American and British periodicals...
...MAr LEwis, E. W. CHANnLEa, MARIa BLAKE, EVGAa DANIEL K~.MEa, and BORGHILD LUNDBERG LEE are contributors of poetry to the magazines...
...But having stepped into the place of an actress whose Leah was one of the finest renderings of an entire season, Miss Linley must face the cruel test of frank comparisons...
...And this is unfortunate...
...New York: Charles Scribner's Sons...
...ANNA McCLu~ SHOLL is a critic Of art, and the author of The Law of Life...
...The perform-ances still have serious shortcomings...
...His books include Drums of Defeat...
...At least it will do this as regards philosophy in Europe and America in the last sixty or seventy-five years...
...It is a play that builds up exceedingly well for two acts and then falls to pieces in the third, due to the fact, apparently, that the author, having created a situation, does not know exactly how to solve it, or else fails to make his solution dear in dramatic terms...
...Already the latest scientific revolution seems to have had two effects upon popular and philosophieal thought: a new sense of cosmic immensity and complexity, and an obsolescence of Cartesian dualism...
...The Port of Storms...
...And under the broad heading of naturalism the author works in a brief discussion of the views of Darwin, Spencer, Comte, Mach, Poincar~, and Durkheim--which already are, as might be suspected, in large measure pass& One is sometimes led to suppose that idealism flourishes in Germany, and only there...
...Howdy King, written by Mark Swan and presented by Anne Nichols, is certainly not a play for the high-brows, who are, let us suppose, the vege- tarians of the theatre world...
...Unfortunately, the new production is not identical with that of last year...
...RODERICK GILL is a literary critic and reviewer for the New York press...
...For, while Professor Durant paints more vivid pictures, fills in more personal de- tails, and makes more "wisecracks," it is fair to say that Pro- fessor Perry tells more of the essential truth...
...Miss Le Gallienne has followed this method and it gives one a highly diverting, not to say, relaxing evening of theatre...
...Throughout all this trivial and diverting action, it is Mirandolina who emerges as the silver binding thread...
...Indeed, he distinguishes another category, comprising the doctrines of Nietzsche, Bergson and James--voluntarism, vitalism, and pragmatism...
...It is, in fact, a mild and amusing mixture of the Connecticut Yankee and Graustark, transposed, with a timely sense of pub- licity, to a place called Eldorado and to settings reminiscent of the country of a certain queen who recently honored America with her presence, her writings and her tourist com-plications...
...Later, when the Dybbuk speaks from within, there is a change in the regis- ter, but not in the personality of her voice...
...JAMES J. DALY, S.J., is a poet and critic, at present on the faculty of St...
...Seekers after ultimate perfection will probably find many defects in the production of Goldoni's comedy, La Locandiera (The Mistress of the Inn...
...Professor Perry proceeds to unravel recent philosophy into three or four chief threads...
...HENRIETTA DANA SKINNER is the author of Espirltu Santo...
...What the new naturalism is to be, it would be folly to predict...
...Louis University...
...It is still one of the most moving spectacles ever attempted on the American stage, and also a study in the deepest problems of mysticism as seen through the confused veil of an emotional people...
...BOOKS Philosophy of the Recent Past, by Ralpk Barton Perry...
...The present translation and adaptation are by Helen Lohmann, the English lines being quite adequate if not marked by the fine edge of distinction...
...The acting is unusually good throughout, under expert direction...
...For there are theatre-goers and critics aplenty who refuse to accept a play in its own terms and insist upon comparing it to plays of totally different character and in-tention--a method not unlike the vegetarian's who pronounces all beefsteak dinners unworthy...
...She chants her lines on a high key...
...KENNETH gLADE ALLING was formerly editor of the poetry magazine, The Measure...
...The wild dance of the beggars in the second act, which was one of the most menacing scenes ever staged, has lost something of its former magic...
...Her work has sparkle and a great deal of refreshing spontaneity...
...EESEST BP.ENNECKE, JR., is a literary critic and the author of a Life of Thomas Hardy...
...Brecher's strong accent and a certain innate heaviness impede his work...
...Miss Linley's voice in the earlier scenes is not so much ethereal as doll-like...
...SPEER STEAHAN, an American poet, is professor of English in the Catholic University of America...
...l~v...
...LURTON BLASSINGAME iS a New York journahst...
...Yet--glamour is there, emerging from the gaudily old-fashioned house itself, from the devotion of the acting company, from the delightful musical interludes, and above all from the audience, a group of real theatre lovers, admitted at a price within the reach of all, and given over to enjoyment unhampered by economic regrets...
...GR~NWLLE VERNON is a general contributor on musical and literary subjects to the American magazines...
...Whereas the other book furnishes the reader an insight (and often a very good one) into personalities and isolated flashes of thought, this book is more likely to convey to him a sense of what philosophy is actually about, and where it is headed...
...And he moves about among his materials with a sure gait, and what seems, to the reviewer at least, like sound judgment...
...Before she becomes possessed by the Dybbuk, Leah must be played in a vein of exalted innocence, at once ethereal and passionate, a figure half of this world and half of another...
...But it is decidedly a play for those who enjoy a good satirical comedy in its place, just as they enjoy a good movie, a good opera or a fine tragedy, each in its place...
...But the author gives an account of the philosophy of Victor Cousin, Ravaisson, Renouvier and Lachelier, to say nothing of that of Croce and Gentile, which strongly reminds one that idealism is no respecter of international frontiers...
...His engaging smile and poetic crudity, while distinctly colored by the Will Rogers tradition, promise considerable future use-fulness in character rbles...
...JosEP~ B. KONCEVICIUS is a Lithuanian writer now resident at the Catholic University of America...
...For my part, I should seriously question whether this fourth trend of thought is a bona fide species of philosophy, or a more or less crafty attempt to show the impossibility of any philosophy at all...
...This doctrine, absurd as it may sound to unphilosophical ears, has great power in it, though perhaps less today than it had twenty-five or thirty years ago...
...This part is, in certain respects, a real tour de force for an actress, making unusual vocal and histrionic demands...
...GOUVERNEUR PAUXVlNG is an American writer living in Europe...
...There is a firm critical viewpoint behind the book...
...Surely it is quite as permissible to let the audience put itself back many years and to give the play quite as simply as when it came fresh from a quill pen...
...her repertory company is still the abiding place of many actors with more or less faint and varied foreign accents, French, German and Scandinavian, not to mention the gamut of English from British to broad American...
...Perhaps the best feature of Howdy King is its introduction of Minor Watson as the irrepressible Johnny North...
...He also recalls the earlier "legiti- mate" days of Douglas Fairbanks...
...He distinguishes materialism and positivism, spiritualism and idealism, and what he calls the revival of realism...
...and A Modern Book of Catholic Verse...
...Sz.oo...
...I do not mean that her perform- ance is a bad one...
...O~N STAY,TON is a well-known British writer and journalist...
...Miss Linley makes a brave effort, but falls far short of the power which Miss Ellis contributed to these scenes...
...The story is fragile enough to suit the mood of care-free comedy with a filip of satire...
...Miss Le Gallienne's own work still suffers from the fact that she directs the plays her- self...
...It is quite delightful to see Miss Le Gallienne in comedy, shorn of the over-heavy responsibility with which she faces tragedy...
...Miss Nichols calls the play a romantic comedy, which is just a trifle digni- fied for such patently comic-opera material...
...Sayre Crawley as the penniless marquis, and Paul Leyssac as the count play well into her mood, and even Egon Brecher enlivens himself enough to take part in the fun...
...Miss Ellis encompassed this illusion with amazing success...
...or that the act by which anything comes into mind is the same as the act by which it comes into being...
Vol. 5 • December 1926 • No. 8
