Life — March 21, 1907 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Mostly Mr. G. B. Shaw of the most. seri obstacles to rational good government in America is that narrow-minded clement which believes that human nature may be made good by for the political cor- nour impotent liquor laws. It stands in the way of the sen: eyulation of other social questi secured the abolition of the Ai and is, therefore, responsible for the spread of law. Tt is responsibl ruption that arises fre various evils amc Just now it is our private soldiers. ly engaged in trying 4 take the control of the sport of horse-racing out of the hands of gentlemen who have made it reputable and to mblers and blacklegs. Tt is ignorant in the ways of the world and is, therefore, easily led inte foolish and harmful crusades t depends on sculling their employers. Tf the ignorance of this ything at all by experience, the lack f general interest in the present production of Mrs. \ Profession” should be an instructive lesson. We all remen.ber the to-do made about this play when it had its solitary performance last season and how the crusade of Mr. Anthony Comstock and ex-Police Commissioner McAdoo brought it to the attention of every one, not in New York alone, but the If the play was an evil thing —which it isn't—its influence through its circulation in book form was tremendously i nee, Asa play it is calculated to interest only the public and would not have received very great consideration even at their hands. “Mr. C ceeded in seatterin Bk. COTISCHALA AS Mr, Lickcheese i POVERTY commit it to the charge of crooked ga y its patidl agents, whose livelihood element could ever learn ai arren's, country over ased hy the illegal suppression of its perfor At stnall section af mstock and the persons who employ him suc- it bi was only in what it contained that was unseemly. And yet Mr least among those whose interest in it mstock and his police allies pay absolutely no attention to the indecencies of a theatrical performance which has occupied promincnt Broadway theatre for months and nightly makes its appeal to the most degraded instincts of human nature. + 8 6 R. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW’S satire is now } in evidence in two New York theatres. Some ex \ pert judges, and apparently the theatre-going public E41) in New York, deny dramatic value to ‘Mrs. Warren's L244 Profession and to Widowers’ Houses.” Certainly as ! LNG social sermons they are as barren of results as sermons NPFS usually are. ‘The moral of one is that working. girls should be paid better wages to prevent their seeking another alternative to their hard lot. ‘The other shows: that collecting high rents fror and unsanitary ten¢ ments is a hardship on the tenants and ought to make landowners ashamed of are left ed, certainly not diverted from the unsafe owners in fec, mortgages and themselves At the conclusion of cach play the character ’ sta errors which have been so distinctly and cleverly pointed out to them. Which is alse true of the much where they udiences that have been ser- Lire. has never ta Mr. Shaw in his serious aspects any too seriously, and in these two instances believes that the net result is the royalties that go to Mr. Shaw, the return on the theatrical capital and labor employed and the amusement to be secured by his audiences from listening to Mr. Shaw's sometimes witty, sometimes humorous, some- monized. times sarcastic paradoxes and shafts driven at the straw enemies he sets up. In his marked ability for dis- covering evils, Mr. Shaw shows him- self a worthy prede akers. But itis not Mr. Shaw's muck-raking which gives him his vogue in America. It is his wit and the sense of humor which he doubtless owes to his Irish ancestry, MR. COTTSCHALK AS. Mr Lickchecse 18 PROSPERITY essor of our own muc + 8 O SPECIAL excitement has been caused by the revival of “Mrs. W sion.” No particular attention would have been paid to it in the first place had it not been for the blind zeal of those whose ignorance is typified by Mr. Anthony Comstock. (And speaking of that oc- currence, which caused a very considerable financial loss to some one, of the moral persons who deprived others of their property felt any conscientious promptings to make good the loss for which their ignorance was responsible ?) As a dramatic performance the present production of “Mrs. Warren” is an adequate one. To go into cestasies over the admirable impersonation of Mrs. Warren by Miss Mary Shaw would be to confess opportunities of observation that are not usually confessed. ‘There is not a theatre-gocr who ever saw Brutus or Lady Macbeth in fact, and yet we all more or less learnedly and fluently discuss the correctness of their inter- pretation, The fidelity to type is certainly recognized by the audiences before which Miss Shaw appears and there is no question of the force with which she brings home the truths the author is trying to impress. Mr. Findlay’s Rev. Samuel Gardner, con- scientiously and finely as it was drawn, failed to carry the idea that this particular parson could ever have been a very gay buck at any period of his career. The Sir George of Mr. Ratclitie and the Praed of Mr. Mitchell were sufficient, but not distinguished, Mr. Walter Thomas's Frank Gardner conveyed exactly the notion of irresponsible youthful good spirits and careless skepticism which the author ne ast. Miss Cathrine Countiss as Vivie struggled vainly with a rdle whose complexity might well puzzle a far better equipped actress, As Lire said before, “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” deals in Mr. Shaw's always amusing fashion with problems which, unpleasant s they are and unsuitable for discussion as a dramatic attraction, are not by any means new, and for their presentation in this form he furnishes no excuse in the way of offeria arren’s Profes- led for his contr: 2 solution, comicbooks.com