16 *
News
The Affairs of Anatole
a Dramatic lango.
BY PERCY HAMMOND.
HE question presents itself: What shall
be done with "Anatol Shall we eye
it askance as something graceful but
led like the Tango, to be precariously
enjoyed after the departure of age and
youth from the scene of festival; or shall we
regard it aesthetically like a professor in a
magazine, as a "twilight, mood," an exotic
nuance, something genre, presenting a gay,
naïve aspect of philandery and flirtation?
Or shall we analyze it as a problem in
psychology, a criticism of life as it is led by
others? A film back of a crimson curtain, laden
with ethical warnings? Something to be in¬
vestigated, classified, and pinned seriously to
the wall like a collected butterfly? Or, again,
shall we observe it as a brilliant, highly
sconted pastime, a panorama sparkling with
human frailties, a smart, sophisticated joke.
a parlor story brightly told?
Well, there were so many differing impres¬
sions about "Anatole last evening at the Fine
Arts theater that even the inscrutable Mr. Win¬
trop Ames, under whose Olympian auspices it
was performed, must have at last added the
word baffling to his vocabulary. As I came
out I heard that it was not at all the "Anatol
of Wiesbaden, nor yet of Amiens. In Munich
it was so and so, and in Nice likewise. Anatol
here was the true to philosopher; there the
carnal esthete, and elsewhere the sentimental
male ingenue. Quite a subject, one ima, nes,
for Mr. Elmendorf or Mr. Holmes. His women,
I heard, were the "frail, la moyant types of
Greutze, simple, sensuus, strongly weak," et
cetera. Out from the debris of so much travel
and observation it is not possible to emerge
with more than a confused sense of helpless¬
ness, inarticulate and uninformed.
However, the purpose of this semi-column
being news, more or less, it will be put down
that "Anatol is a bright evening for the
superholesome. As every one knows who was
there last evening or who will be there in the
evenings of the fortnight thereafter, Anatol
is a sequence of episodes in the life of an un¬
moral young man of Vienna. These episodes are
not to be recommended for their chastity. They
involve amorous affairs about which young per¬
sons, home from school for the holidays, should
know nothing unless their parents have at¬
tended "The Blindness of Virtue at the other
end of the hall. But as mature diversion they
are tonic. About Mr. Schnitzler, who wrote
them, and about Mr. Granville Barker, who para¬
phrased them in English, no details are neces¬
sary. It may be said that the version of Ana¬
to performed three floors above by Mr. Mau¬
rice Browne and his maidens, in the Little the
ater, is more courageus, for Mr. Ames has put
his blue pencil through many human lines of
the play left spoken by the courageus Mr.
Browne.
Mr. John Barrymore played Anatol. He
seemed to realize that Anatol is not one char¬
acter but many a different man superficially in
every episode. Esthetic now, animal then, wise
here, foolish everywhere he fitted into the
series as, perhaps, no other American actor
would fit. It is to be regretted that occasion¬
ally his distrust of audiences (formed from bit¬
ter experience) caused him to revert to his mu¬
sical comedy tricks. Particularly was this to
be lamented in the episode with Mimi, po¬
formed vividly, perhaps too vividly, by Mi-
Doris Kane as the hungry coryphée. He we
lurid therein, but he was not so in the mos
immoral of the episodes that of the married
Gabrielle, who met him in the rain in front of
a Christmas shop. A bit of a traged in that
incident, and beautifuly set forth by Miss Kath¬
eine Emmet and Mr. Barry more. Miss Gail
Kain appeared radiantly as the forgetful Blanca,
and Mr. Barrymore there, too, was the Schnitz¬
ler hero, with all the comic gravity of the rôle.
Much lively acting was done by Miss Isabelle
Lee as the temperamental Lona in the episode
of "The wedding Morning," and there also was
Mr. Barrymore full of alacrity and spirit. He
is the one American player, I believe, with the
intelligence and personality to make "Anatol
THE
the The
ON DARDTMORE esto
in The Affairs of Anatole
acceptable and entertaining. I am sorry that I
did not see Miss Katherine Harris (Mrs. Barry¬
more) as Hilda, the purest of the several
heroines. Everybody else said that she was the
most expert of the lot.
* *
News
The Affairs of Anatole
a Dramatic lango.
BY PERCY HAMMOND.
HE question presents itself: What shall
be done with "Anatol Shall we eye
it askance as something graceful but
led like the Tango, to be precariously
enjoyed after the departure of age and
youth from the scene of festival; or shall we
regard it aesthetically like a professor in a
magazine, as a "twilight, mood," an exotic
nuance, something genre, presenting a gay,
naïve aspect of philandery and flirtation?
Or shall we analyze it as a problem in
psychology, a criticism of life as it is led by
others? A film back of a crimson curtain, laden
with ethical warnings? Something to be in¬
vestigated, classified, and pinned seriously to
the wall like a collected butterfly? Or, again,
shall we observe it as a brilliant, highly
sconted pastime, a panorama sparkling with
human frailties, a smart, sophisticated joke.
a parlor story brightly told?
Well, there were so many differing impres¬
sions about "Anatole last evening at the Fine
Arts theater that even the inscrutable Mr. Win¬
trop Ames, under whose Olympian auspices it
was performed, must have at last added the
word baffling to his vocabulary. As I came
out I heard that it was not at all the "Anatol
of Wiesbaden, nor yet of Amiens. In Munich
it was so and so, and in Nice likewise. Anatol
here was the true to philosopher; there the
carnal esthete, and elsewhere the sentimental
male ingenue. Quite a subject, one ima, nes,
for Mr. Elmendorf or Mr. Holmes. His women,
I heard, were the "frail, la moyant types of
Greutze, simple, sensuus, strongly weak," et
cetera. Out from the debris of so much travel
and observation it is not possible to emerge
with more than a confused sense of helpless¬
ness, inarticulate and uninformed.
However, the purpose of this semi-column
being news, more or less, it will be put down
that "Anatol is a bright evening for the
superholesome. As every one knows who was
there last evening or who will be there in the
evenings of the fortnight thereafter, Anatol
is a sequence of episodes in the life of an un¬
moral young man of Vienna. These episodes are
not to be recommended for their chastity. They
involve amorous affairs about which young per¬
sons, home from school for the holidays, should
know nothing unless their parents have at¬
tended "The Blindness of Virtue at the other
end of the hall. But as mature diversion they
are tonic. About Mr. Schnitzler, who wrote
them, and about Mr. Granville Barker, who para¬
phrased them in English, no details are neces¬
sary. It may be said that the version of Ana¬
to performed three floors above by Mr. Mau¬
rice Browne and his maidens, in the Little the
ater, is more courageus, for Mr. Ames has put
his blue pencil through many human lines of
the play left spoken by the courageus Mr.
Browne.
Mr. John Barrymore played Anatol. He
seemed to realize that Anatol is not one char¬
acter but many a different man superficially in
every episode. Esthetic now, animal then, wise
here, foolish everywhere he fitted into the
series as, perhaps, no other American actor
would fit. It is to be regretted that occasion¬
ally his distrust of audiences (formed from bit¬
ter experience) caused him to revert to his mu¬
sical comedy tricks. Particularly was this to
be lamented in the episode with Mimi, po¬
formed vividly, perhaps too vividly, by Mi-
Doris Kane as the hungry coryphée. He we
lurid therein, but he was not so in the mos
immoral of the episodes that of the married
Gabrielle, who met him in the rain in front of
a Christmas shop. A bit of a traged in that
incident, and beautifuly set forth by Miss Kath¬
eine Emmet and Mr. Barry more. Miss Gail
Kain appeared radiantly as the forgetful Blanca,
and Mr. Barrymore there, too, was the Schnitz¬
ler hero, with all the comic gravity of the rôle.
Much lively acting was done by Miss Isabelle
Lee as the temperamental Lona in the episode
of "The wedding Morning," and there also was
Mr. Barrymore full of alacrity and spirit. He
is the one American player, I believe, with the
intelligence and personality to make "Anatol
THE
the The
ON DARDTMORE esto
in The Affairs of Anatole
acceptable and entertaining. I am sorry that I
did not see Miss Katherine Harris (Mrs. Barry¬
more) as Hilda, the purest of the several
heroines. Everybody else said that she was the
most expert of the lot.
* *