Life, 1919-01-30 · page 20 of 34
Life — January 30, 1919 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page reviews three theatrical productions. The top cartoon satirizes the melodramatic nature of stage plays, showing audience members in exaggerated poses of excitement and distress—a commentary on how theater audiences react with outsized emotion to dramatic plots. The text reviews "The Woman in Room 13" (a play dealing frankly with divorce), "Up in Mabel's Room" (a farce featuring women in pajamas), and "The Climax" (featuring a girl who loses her singing voice). The satire mocks how these plays exploit sensational domestic situations—infidelity, near-nudity, and tragedy—to attract audiences seeking entertainment rather than art. The reviewer notes the titles themselves warn away anyone seeking serious theater, suggesting these are designed for viewers seeking "venison high" (crude entertainment). The criticism is that theatrical producers cynically construct melodrama around scandalous situations rather than meaningful drama.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“on, noy rhe Woman in Room 13" is more serious, and not so free reproach, as it deals very frankly with occurrences of the iar to divorce reporters. It is an ingeniously con drama which gains not much sympathy for any even for the d heroine, made or her persecuted Mr. Ch: 3 Wal hy for the first frames up nial choic and to the play's 1 played the role in le Gail Kane is also in the east, and ¢ 2 plays listed in the Confiden etself ally by an entirely uncalled-for bit of pl , there are least fifteen adds to th ted atmosphere of the pl ich the wounsy person be denied that Woman in Room 13 an eaihoee wo eer cheat nte rar also it cannot be denied that Some'ciihenvay-nonmateturcwe a very large p. ppeal is to those who like their venison high. tal profit « c musenient -_ . . That bein © case, i334 Sg ot Ww Etvb& forgive the product ° h Up in M USICAL in its atmos t entirely dramatic in Room” and “The Woman in Room 13.” particularly as th M appeal, “The Climax“ comes back aiter a long absenc titles themselves. con a warning to anyone except those from the New York stage once more to interest us in the looking for the ntertainment the titles indic tragedy of th zirl who thought she d er voice and Strangely, too, the plays themselves are not so. risks in the delightful comedy background of the story. This time ly vicious person might conclude from the titles. Eleanor Painter is the heroine, and brings her personal charm and musical training to a role where both count. Mr. Pinto survives from the original cast as the love-stricken youthi:l composer, and Mr. Walter Wilson atones for a shockingly bad Fe instance, nothing h in Mabel’s Room” ex- by an engaging n of the lovable singing-master cept a pretty free exh entirely modest and That the charm of “The Climax” had a genuine hasis is not very becoming pervers' pale pwn by its surviving power to interest, amuse and move a Pajamas as sory to a succession of really Ia ci later generation cal sit 2 hiss 2 Yt yields to the su: . Th ae, QW ¢Z arter i lies admirabl ation o s piece, so the really innocent-mind, y go and laugh at IRD DUNSANY'S repotation is not to be enhanced it without harm, The neludes some pretty women and by “The I ct of Tt has the Oriental at- those two eccentric comedians, Messrs. Walter Jones and tractiveness and novelty of re that has marked others John Cumberland, the combination proving effective in making of his plays, but it has no such definite plot or cleverness of “Up in Mabel’s Room" both picturesque and laugh-compelling. dialogue. At points its characters become wearisome with ry 'y comicbooks.com