Life — October 7, 1920 — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

The Audience and Others O review of the first night of Mr. Belasco’s “One” would be complete without mention being made of the individual performers in the audience. It was Laryngitis Night, and, as the opening of what promises to be an especially bronchial sea- son, it will perhaps not be amiss to devote some space to the distinctive work of those who give signs of promise. First and foremost, the laurels for the evening must go te the gentleman wearing a dinner coat and sitting in the neigh- borhood of G-115. Not only was he in excellent voice, but he picked his pauses with great cleverness, coughing only when impressive silences were being indulged in on the“stage. One almost suspects that the gentleman had attended one or two rehearsals of the play and practiced coughing at just the psy- chological moment in each scene. He was never late once in picking up his cues. A more finished performance, technically, however, was given by a large man sitting over by the stage box on the right-hand side of the house. He was practically never still, and worked in a progressive series. Starting with a low bark, he elaborated the thing until it assumed the proportions of a college cheer, ending in complete exhaustion, unfortunately only temporary. This gentleman really carried the whole burden of the steady coughing for the entire house, giving the impression of great numbers by his own individual efforts. Good work was also done by the people sitting in C-11t-112- 113, M 1-3, G-7 and L-14. The rest of the house was adequate. Among the laws passed by the State Legislature we can find none making it compulsory for people who are afflicted with coughs to attend the theatre. Managers would unquestionably be only too glad to refund their money to any bronchial-busters who find themselves, on the evening of the performance, in the clutches of an unexpected throat trouble. If the managers wouldn't do it, there would certainly be enough people in the audience who would contribute money or jewels to make up the amount. . One” is an excellent A for the performance on the stage, production of what would, under less favorable circum- stances, be a burlesque drama of the spirit world. Miss Frances Starr, taking the dual part of twin sisters who have but one soul between them, saves the thing from being extremely funny in spots by her sympathetic acting. One hesitates to smile when it means so much to Miss Starr. But there are times when even her admirers are forced to look in an embarrassed manner toward the top of the proscenium, hoping against hope ¢ Harry Kelley will burst in soon with his dog and say that it was all a joke. One of these occasions is when Miss Starr, doubling in bras- sigres, goes to the window and communes with her sister across the ocean, holding a red flower to her breast to placate the Goddess of Chance and talking in loud tones, repeating diffi- cult passages in the manner of one having a telephone-booth connection with New Rochelle. Although the communication is supposed to be entirely psychical, one sister has no trouble in deceiving the other by saying something out loud which she doesn't really mean. The power of the spoken word was never so clearly demonstrated. Edward Knoblock, the author, has tried something new in psychic phenomena, and for the very trial should be commended. The idea of having twin sisters, sharing a twin soul (cach be- ing, as a noted Rialto wag remarked, “half-soled”), has never been tried before on the stage. After seeing it done as well as it possibly could be done by Miss Starr, and staged as well it possibly could be staged by Mr. Belasco, one feels that it will never be tried again. S> Eons <e NOTHER difficult thing to find fault. with is William Hodge in “The Guest of Honor.” The minute you start in to jeer at it, you lay yourself open to the charge of treating lightly such elementary virtues as kindness, generosity, love of little children, and a nasal intonation. John Weatherbee in “The Guest of Honor” is just the biggest-hearted, child- pettingest feller you ever saw. And he says things like, “ Just keep step with old Cap’ Courage and you'll come out all right in the end,” and his lady friend, taking the cue from him, says, “God makes the smiles, but the Devil makes the tears.” And unquestionably that is just the way it was. how it isn’t exactly stage talk. spoiled us. But some- I guess that Frank Tinney has But William Hodge acts the part he has written for himself with great ease, and although he sometimes, with his eyes shut and head thrown back, gives the impression that he is imitating Frances Starr talking with her sister three thousand miles away, he is not hard to listen to. Neither is the play hard to understand. When the little boy runs up to the lady visitor and, looking into her eyes, says in a high voice: “Why, you look just like my muvver,” the game is up. You might just as well go home then. Fey will you have any trouble in diagnosing the plot nna Ascends,” in which Miss Alice Brady returns to the “speaking stage,” as it is contemptuously called in movie circles. In fact, you yourself probably wrote a play just like “Anna Ascends” when you were a very little boy and per- formed it in your aunt's attic, at ten pins per seat (plus amuse- ment tax and agent's commission). Everyone has written some- thing like “Anna Ascends” at some time or other. It is too bad that Miss Brady should have been treated so shabbily in the matter of material and support. She is a re- markably pleasing young lady, and could do wonders with a real part in a real play. She might well be given a great deal of singing to do also, for a snatch of Syrian song in the first act served only as a tantalizing hors d’oeuvre for the cold rice- pudding which was to follo As the Syrian girl who rises to success in New York by means of a dictionary and a strong set of teeth with which she bites her numerous assailants, Miss Brady falls heiress to the legacy of last season's Chinese ingenues in the use of “damn” and “hell” as comedy lines. As a matter of fact, everything that she has to say is a legacy from someone, and several of comicbooks.com