4.9. Anatol - Zyklus
box 8/7
McCarthye first say in management,
seemed just about the right sort of audience
for the dialogues a very important point.
Abend of the advanced drama crowd
with men and women of the more or les
smart world seemed to touch off just the
necessary compromise between intellect,
elegante, and a sense of humour.
What, then, of Anato himself to tell
the truth, he turns out a most entertaining
companion even for a whole evening. We
had no fewer than five of his love stories on
end, and so far from boring one they rather
grew upon the imagination. One found
oneself quite sorry to think that Anatol was
going to be married after all-perhaps, in¬
deed, he was not ! Even though he started
out with his bouquet, who knows what avec
a glance from a bright eye on his way to
the church might not have bad upon the
Anatolian temperament !
Of the five girl Hilda, Gabrielle, Bibi,
Mimi, and Lons who occupied his heart in
turn on Saturday night, only two were new
to London. These were Gabrielle and Bibi.
Hilda, Mimi, and Lona have already figured
in Ack No Questions," arwell
Supper," and "The wedding Morning at
the Palace. The two new dialogues
Christmas Present and an An Episode
were both worthy of Schnitzler and of
Anatol.
The first one has a touch almost of pathos
in it though heaven forbid that any heavy
business should weigh down the heart of
Anatol. He has offered his umbrella te a
lady in a shower. She turns out to be
Gabrielle, an old flame of his, married. He
was buying a Christmas present for another
gir just a dear little girl who lived
all alone in a little room with cheap and
nasty wallpaper," a little girl to whom he
was all he world for them, and
who would be sure to great him by throwing
g. It is
her arme round his neck ande¬
Take her
good to have you back again!
these flowers, said Gabrielle, and tell her
that they are from someone who might have
been as happy as she, if she had had the
courage.
The other new dialogue is, by way of
revenge, a humiliation for Anatol. He is
sorting his old love letters with his friend
Max. He comes one with just the
remnants of a rebus nothing more.
Ah," says ne, that was little Bibi.
We'd loved each other for only an hour
or two. I sat at the piano. She sat at
my feet, her head in ni lap. I knew that
I was the whole world to ber ... and
always would be . . . one is se certain of
these things sometimes. While to me she
and her love were just an episode.
As it happens, Max know little Bibi.
She is calling at his rooms this very evening.
A knock at the door. It is she. Anatol
reveals himself. She does worse than not
remember him. She mistakes him for a
friend she met in St. Petersburg.
In each of the five dialogues one cannot
admire too much the excellence of Mr.
Granville Burkers adaptation natural and
idiomatic in every line. His acting as
Anatol is never quite so perfect. One can
see that he is intellectually interested in
the blend of cynicism and sentiment that
Anatol present; but he never for a moment
suggests the light-hearted amoristmaster
of glance and sigh that Anatol must needs
be. Still, taking into account Mr. Barker
personal contrast to Anatol, the perform¬
ance was all the more remarkable. Mr.
Nigel Playfair made an ideally matter of¬
fact foll as Max, and for the five girls there
was a deliciously varied galaxy-Miss
Gertrude Robin, Miss Katherine Pole, Mies
Dorothy Minto, Miss Alice Crawford, and
Miss Lillah McCarthy herself.
The Great Northern Railway Company of
in