4.9. Anat
lu¬
box 8/7
Burg, T.
(tuellenangabe ohne Gewähr
Ausschnitt aus:
23 The Observer, London
vom
VOL.
VIENNESE DIALOGUES AT
THE LITTLE THEATRE.
Miss Lillah McCarthy opened her season at
the Little Theatre last night with a series of
one-act sketches or dialogues adroitly para¬
phrased from the German by her husband,
Mr Granville Barker, and rendered by him
as their chief interpreter. Three of these,
Ask no Questions and You'll hear no
Steier. A Faroweil Supper and "The
wedding Morning, have been recently dis¬
cusel on their presentation during the last
ment at the Palace Theatre. To them are
now added Christmas Present and
An Episode, precisely similar in the airy
tone of their flippant cynical wit, and not
very different in their degree of dramatic
significance.
Anatol, as has already been discovered
from his proposed inquiry into the fidelity of
one of his lady-loves, from his farewell feast
with a second whom he means to discard for
a third, and from his troubles with a fourth
on the morning of his marriage with a fifth,
is a young man who loves not wisely nor too
well, but too numerously for his own comfort
or for our edification. His professional philan¬
dering, however, is treated by the Viennes
author. Arthur Schnitzler so light a
touch that it never seems quite so shocking
as perhaps it ought to be in its real signifi¬
cance. There is so much persiflage about his
succession of affairs with his Hildas and Bibis
and Mimis that they are artfully made to
appear to mean nothing in particular, except
subjects for philosophic discussion between
him and his helpful friend, Max. For
wonder Max does not figure in the first of
the two novelties presented yesterday even¬
ing, "A Christmas Present, which is a
shredly written duologue between Anatol
and Gabrielle, a young wife, with whom he
flirted before her marriage and whom, on
their chance meeting, he now consults as to
the gift which he wants to buy for a dear
little girl of a different stamp. In An
Episode, the other new trife, Max is to the
fore once again to help his friend sort out
the letters and locks of hair and faded flowers
which are the tokens of light loves of days
gone by. There is plenty of a genuine, if not
quite agréable, humour about this, as well
as about Anatolis disappointment at finding
himself completely forgotten by one of the
episodical heroines whose memory he had
cherished with his most meretricious romance.
In A Christmas Present, Mr. Barker, as
the wholesale loyer, was excellently supported
by Miss Katherine Pole, an actress of whom
London has seen little since she figured in
melodrama at the Princesses some seven or
eight years ago. Miss Pole gave a hint
of feeling more sincere than any gener¬
ally aroused by Anatol to Gabrielles
message to the dear little girl whose
happiness she thinks, poor misguided lady!
might have been hers if she had not been
a coward." To the oblivious Bibi of An
Episode Miss Dorothy Minto imparted
sprightliness if no particular sense of character,
while here as elsewhere, the judicions support
of Mr. Nigel Playfair as Max, the
cold blooded, easy chair philosopher, was in¬
valuable. In the other sketches Miss Lillah
McCarthy, Miss Alice Crawford and Miss Ger¬
trude Robins successfull repeated their former
impersonations. As to Mr. Granville Barker,
he plays Anatol throughout with agreeable
lightness, and with an earnest effort to
indicate the consummate conceit of a gay
dog who is not really quite so gay as
If he hardly suggests
he thinks.
the smartness of the seductive swell
whom he imagines himself to be this is per¬
haps just as well. One does not want, at any
rate, for a mixed London audience, too much
realism in these witty romances of fast life
evidently thoroughly
in Vienna. What
enjoyed last night was less the not too con¬
vincing characterisation than the bright,
natural dialogue which caused frequent burste
of laughter to punctuate the evening's novel
and rather daring entertainment. This latest
experiment at the Little Theatre started
therefore, with the promise of what may be
described as a fashionable drawing room
success.
lu¬
box 8/7
Burg, T.
(tuellenangabe ohne Gewähr
Ausschnitt aus:
23 The Observer, London
vom
VOL.
VIENNESE DIALOGUES AT
THE LITTLE THEATRE.
Miss Lillah McCarthy opened her season at
the Little Theatre last night with a series of
one-act sketches or dialogues adroitly para¬
phrased from the German by her husband,
Mr Granville Barker, and rendered by him
as their chief interpreter. Three of these,
Ask no Questions and You'll hear no
Steier. A Faroweil Supper and "The
wedding Morning, have been recently dis¬
cusel on their presentation during the last
ment at the Palace Theatre. To them are
now added Christmas Present and
An Episode, precisely similar in the airy
tone of their flippant cynical wit, and not
very different in their degree of dramatic
significance.
Anatol, as has already been discovered
from his proposed inquiry into the fidelity of
one of his lady-loves, from his farewell feast
with a second whom he means to discard for
a third, and from his troubles with a fourth
on the morning of his marriage with a fifth,
is a young man who loves not wisely nor too
well, but too numerously for his own comfort
or for our edification. His professional philan¬
dering, however, is treated by the Viennes
author. Arthur Schnitzler so light a
touch that it never seems quite so shocking
as perhaps it ought to be in its real signifi¬
cance. There is so much persiflage about his
succession of affairs with his Hildas and Bibis
and Mimis that they are artfully made to
appear to mean nothing in particular, except
subjects for philosophic discussion between
him and his helpful friend, Max. For
wonder Max does not figure in the first of
the two novelties presented yesterday even¬
ing, "A Christmas Present, which is a
shredly written duologue between Anatol
and Gabrielle, a young wife, with whom he
flirted before her marriage and whom, on
their chance meeting, he now consults as to
the gift which he wants to buy for a dear
little girl of a different stamp. In An
Episode, the other new trife, Max is to the
fore once again to help his friend sort out
the letters and locks of hair and faded flowers
which are the tokens of light loves of days
gone by. There is plenty of a genuine, if not
quite agréable, humour about this, as well
as about Anatolis disappointment at finding
himself completely forgotten by one of the
episodical heroines whose memory he had
cherished with his most meretricious romance.
In A Christmas Present, Mr. Barker, as
the wholesale loyer, was excellently supported
by Miss Katherine Pole, an actress of whom
London has seen little since she figured in
melodrama at the Princesses some seven or
eight years ago. Miss Pole gave a hint
of feeling more sincere than any gener¬
ally aroused by Anatol to Gabrielles
message to the dear little girl whose
happiness she thinks, poor misguided lady!
might have been hers if she had not been
a coward." To the oblivious Bibi of An
Episode Miss Dorothy Minto imparted
sprightliness if no particular sense of character,
while here as elsewhere, the judicions support
of Mr. Nigel Playfair as Max, the
cold blooded, easy chair philosopher, was in¬
valuable. In the other sketches Miss Lillah
McCarthy, Miss Alice Crawford and Miss Ger¬
trude Robins successfull repeated their former
impersonations. As to Mr. Granville Barker,
he plays Anatol throughout with agreeable
lightness, and with an earnest effort to
indicate the consummate conceit of a gay
dog who is not really quite so gay as
If he hardly suggests
he thinks.
the smartness of the seductive swell
whom he imagines himself to be this is per¬
haps just as well. One does not want, at any
rate, for a mixed London audience, too much
realism in these witty romances of fast life
evidently thoroughly
in Vienna. What
enjoyed last night was less the not too con¬
vincing characterisation than the bright,
natural dialogue which caused frequent burste
of laughter to punctuate the evening's novel
and rather daring entertainment. This latest
experiment at the Little Theatre started
therefore, with the promise of what may be
described as a fashionable drawing room
success.