New Plays

A Bit o' Love. Most significant, most discouraging was the Actors' Theatre production of John Galsworthy's A Bit o' Love. It has become something of the mode to misprize Galsworthy. No surer example of the justice of this attitude has recently appeared. Mr. Galsworthy has attempted an emotional justification of Christian Faith. His curate hero has recently lost his wife in the ancient thicket of infidelity. He turns the other cheek and refuses to chastise the offending male. He refuses even to make a fuss about it and injure that unworthy's reputation as a rising doctor.

His chatterbox rural parish discovers the affair and turns against him as a defender of evil. He loses his church and is about to hang himself when a small child and an ancient farmer remind him that love and courage are enduring loyalties in life.

It is quite true that Mr. Galsworthy is not without theatrical or historical precedent in this attempted justification. Charming Pollock's precedent (The Fool) converted many strips of printed cardboard into negotiable currency. Mr. Galsworthy is superior to Mr. Pollock -just enough better to make the result half trash and half sincerity.

These things should be done in a tent with a sawdust trail down the centre aisle. A Bit o' Love was treated to the directive delicacy of Robert Milton. It had to be; under sawdust severity, it might have dropped apart. For this reason, its vigor seemed a simulation. Even excellent acting could not save it.

Taken in full, A Bit o' Love seems imply a pale copy of what some preacher once said to Mr. Galsworthy in church.

His Queen. The old story of the young and beautiful American suddenly seated on the throne of a mythical European kingdom has again been dusted off and set out in the show window by John Hastings Turner. The story is varied slightly in that the young and beautiful is not a man but a girl. It is further varied by the death of the young and beautiful just as the curtain falls.

This last twist was a severe surprise to the initial audience who had sat through two hours of shoddy sentiment and were all ready to don their rubbers and go home with "Victory" and "I love you" ringing in their ears. For the Queen had become involved with the hardboiled revolutionary leader and it seemed almost inevitable that they would join forces. There was no excuse for the bloody ending (she was shot). It was probably furnished in the idea that death indicates honest tragedy. It was as out of place as a hearse on a hay ride.

Francine Larrimore, seductive and technically inefficient actress, was involved. Minute inspection indicated serious flaws in taste and execution of her duties. Yet what the entertainment might have stumbled to without her is not convenient to conjecture.

The Big Mogul. There is probably a wide public for the type of entertainment in which an Irish tenor sends the show out for recess every now and then and sings a couple of ballads. This one even takes time to tell a funny story when the plot begins to lag. Fiske O'Hara is his name. In this play, by De Witt Newing, he is not a poor Irish lad arriving in this country but a full blown business man. The notion of Elbert Gary suddenly holding up a conference of the Steel Corporation to sing about shamrocks is interesting but illogical. The Big Mogul is seldom interesting.

Garrick Gaieties. The students of the Theatre Guild have suddenly burst all decorum's bonds and produced an impudent revue. It is full of youth, energy and fine flashes of wit. Costumes and scenery it overlooks. It is a trifle amateur in spots. Special Sunday performances will be given until the subscribers and the less incurious public have completed their inspection.

The Bride Retires. This product, adapted by Henry Baron from the French of Felix Gendera, was chiefly valuable for its reintroduction of Lila Lee to the speaking stage. She used to be a child actress and spoke her various pieces from many a vaudeville rostrum. Then came long years in the cinema and now the real ambition given scope. Unfortunately, the scope is somewhat limited, due to the ineptitude and the immodesty of the material in hand. It came from France and did not wait long to submit its witticisms to inspection. The general impression was that these witticisms could not stand the shift of language. They sounded heavy and a trifle sour. Miss Lee is beautiful enough but not the accomplished soul to sell this doubtful cargo.

She plays an innocent bride who wants to run away with someone else. Meanwhile, her husband plans similar escape. Then, naturally, they fall fearfully in love.