Page:The New Yorker 0003, 1925-03-07.pdf/13

THE NEW YORKER T seems there were two Irishmen, Jake and Lee, like glaciers. “Leave me," she has Holofernes say, They were walking down the street together one at one high point, "to the essence of silence and the day, and one of them said to the other, "Sure perfection of solitude." We have been working on and begorra," he said, “an' phwat do ye say if we'd that one alone, all week, and if it means anything be afther producin' a play be this furriner Bernstein that "please get out of this tent" would not have ex entoirely?" pressed with equal dignity and rhythm, we are Tin "Lawsy, Massa," retorted the other, with a sly ker Bell. twinkle in his eye, "dere ain't nobody heah but us The Holofernes of the play is Mr. McKay Mor- chickens," ris, and if they must do things like "The Virgin of And that, darlings, is the way it all began, and the Bethulia,” the deep voiced and towering Mr. Morris first thing you know, there we all were in the Ambas- is the very person to do them. Provided, as we were sador Theatre, as comfy as rats in a trap, witnessing saying a moment ago, they must do things like "The the first performance of that little corker, "The Vir- Virgin of Bethulia." The title role is undertaken gin of Bethulia." by Miss Julia Hoyt, widely-known endorser of van- The play is, now that you press us, Gladys Unger's ishing creams. adaptation of Henri Bernstein's "Judith," which is, A deft touch was added by the orchestra, which, in turn, the story of Judith and Holofernes—you wistfully anxious to do something appropriate, ren- know that one. It is the sort of drama on which the dered "India's Love Lyrics" between the acts. designers of costumes and settings can let themselves run wild; sometimes, as we sit watching dream pic tures in the embers, we find ourself wondering if there But then, on the other hand, there is the modern could possibly be any other reason for the production drama. So you simply can't beat the game. A re- of such opera. Certainly, the producers of "The Vir- cent example is "White Collars," displayed at the gin of Bethulia" have made regular butter-and-egg Cort Theatre. This comedy of Edith Ellis's has men of themselves in their lavishness. Nobody can had a tremendous run, out in California. Yes, and ever look them in the eye and ac- so did Hiram Johnson. It is pre- cuse them of not doing the hand- sented by a group of actors and some thing. Why, the cloth-of- actresses who succeed admirably in gold flows like water. The New Plays keeping their faces straight. And now it must be time to get talking about the play itself. Now THE WILD Duck. At the Forty- we are not just the boy to give the Eighth Street Ibsen's play once The Theatre Guild, after the Biblical drama any too honest a again providing a nourishing night curious, confused magnificence of in the theatre. count; there are those we know, "Processional," ran as hard as it who cat it up, but somehow, when NICHT HAWK. At the Bijou. The could in the other direction, and we open the program, and observe 1131h prostitute to be staged in New produced "Ariadne," one of those that the characters in the play are York since Coolidge was elected. Milne comedies. We throb with named A ddah and Saaph and ARIADNE. At the Garrick. The whites love of Mr. Milne as a humorous Irskim and Vagoo, and such, we of two Milne eggs beaten up with essayist; our great heart breaks cease tossing fitfully in our seat, Laura Hope Crews, with joy over his verse; we and gently, slowly, peacefully, set WHITE COLLARS. At the Core. thought "The Truth About out for a three act trip to By-low play that ran a year in Los Angeles, Blayds” was indeed swell. But Land, Those dramas which seem but which is much better than you'd when he gets playing around with to have been placed there by the think. his nice, whimsical ladies and his Gideons are as so many sheep TWO BY Two. At the Selwyn. A de- bouncing British ingenues, we jumping over a fence to us. fenceless and forgettable drama, would just rather be somewhere Miss Unger, as is the way when THE VIRGIN OF BETHULIA, At the else, that's all. And surely that they get writing anything with the Ambassador. The scriptural drama little enough to ask of life. The scene laid back in the good old of Holofernes losing his head oper one thing that bears us up through days, has bedizened the dialogue Judith, with Julia Hoyt put in to a Milne whimsy is that Laura with festoons and fringes of rhet- make it more difficult. Hope Crews is usually present in oric, which trick is of no small aid the cast. She is in "Ariadne," and in causing the hours to whizz by what a help that is.- Last Night