erly leaves off her inspiration and, instead of magic, plays with after-dinner tricks in hypnotism. I mean, simply, that however cheap the play, Miss Ferguson remains almost intolerably attractive to the eye and ear, and evokes the lingering hope that she may again break through the bonds of Bennett and become an artist. That hope, too, is vain.
Perhaps the most complete collection of the faults of acting is in Eugene O'Neill's Beyond the Horizon. That Mr. O'Neill is struggling to express himself with passion and does not fall into violence is perhaps the best thing to be said for a play which fails lamentably to be a great American drama. He has liberated his performers a little; and the result is that they have returned to their previous condition of servitude, to the least inspired and the most pretentious style of acting each of them has known in the past.
All that goes before has been written with the feeling that the theatre can give something more than a momentary pleasure, and that intelligence is not totally out of place in its productions. Dropping the lofty attitude one becomes ever so much better pleased with the theatre, with shows rather than plays and people rather than players. Mr. William Collier, talking mad nonsense for an entire evening, is what is known as a capital performance; Mr. Collier, like most of our comic actors, keeps faith with his admirers, because he promises to amuse without unnecessary vulgarity and he does precisely that. Mr. Leo Ditrichstein, walking through a part which does not even give scope to his talents, is at least honest and competent in The Purple Mask.
The two permanent organizations in New York, the American Singers Opera Company and the Theatre Guild, are, if either will pardon the juxtaposition of names, equally competent. The Guild has most of the intelligent acting in New York, and has the sense of a produced play; the singers of Gilbert and Sullivan have nothing except an intense desire to present their masterpieces neatly and with satisfaction. I do not see any occasion to become excited about the virtues of either. What right have they to be less than they are?
