Faksimile

Text

box 8/7
4.9. Anatol Zyklu-
TELEPHONE-CITY 4963.
For¬
Durants Press Cuttings,
St. ANDRES HOUSE,
32 TO 34, HOLBORN VADUCT,
AND
3, ST. ANDREN STREET, HOLBORN CIRCUS,
E.
The Daily Chronicle.
Fleet Street, London, E.C.
(Edward Lloyd, Ltd., Publishers.)
Cutting from issue dated.............................1910
ASK NO QUESTIONS.
Mr. Barker in Schnitzler Play
at the Palace.
There was not a vacant eat or a foot of
advantageus standing room left at the
Palace last night when the curtain rose
upon Ask No Questions and You'll hear
No Stories, the first of the little series of
Schnitzler playlets that have lured Mr.
Granville Barker to the halls."
The play is a piece of gossamer humour
dramatically Dialogue. Like tho¬
which are to follow, it concerns Anatol and
a lady. Each time it is the same Anato
and a different lady. The lady in this case
was a little midinette he had been in love
with for about a week. He was delicately
interested to know whether she had been
true to him. To get at the truth, his friend
Max suggests that he should hypnotise her,
und ask her then.
This Anatol does with triumphant success.
But when Hilda has been put sweetly to
sleep, poor Anatol is so terribly afraid of
what the answer will be that he cannot
screw up his courage to ask her. He wakes
her up, content in the embrace of blissful
ignorance as the curtain falis. Not only
written with the touch of a mastersatirist,
but prilliantly paraphrased by Mr.
Barker himself, the thing le among the finest
little pieces of art that either our theatres
or our music-halls have given us lately.
It is a little unfortunate, however, that
Mr. Barke's personality as an actor does
not, somehow, quite fit in with one's vision
of Anatol. He is supposed to be a gay,
irresponsible, volatile young bacher, in¬
finitely susceptible and impressionable, an
amateur of the amatory, born to devote die
lip to the fingers of a dainty glove, or press
the foot of an adorable vis-à-vis beneath a
choicely-laden table. Cleverly as Mr. Barker
acte, bie strong intelligence seems to prevent
him from quite suggesting all this. On
misses, too, certain high resonance of
voice that me to go with the character.
For this partie la play the lady concerned
played
Miss Gertrude Robine, herself already well
known as a dramatista astonishingly
pretty dramatist. Mr. Nigel Playfair looked
on genially as Ma¬
TELEPHONE CITY 903.
For
Durants Press Cuttings,
St. ANDRES HOUSE
32 TO 34, HOLBORN VIDUCI
AND
3, ST. ANDREN STREET, HOLBORE CIRCUS,
E.
The Daily Telegraph.
141, Fleet Street, London, E.C.
(Francis Caine, Publisher.)
Cutting from issue dated.......
THE PALACE.
Mr. Granville Barker first appearance at the
Palace last night was made in quite auspicious cir¬
cumstances. A crowded audience and the first of a
sequence of refreshing and literary dialogues from
Arthur Schnitzlers“ Anatole afforded him an excel¬
lent opportunity of immensely pleasing his many
admirers. The chosen dialogue was Ask no ques¬
tions and you'll heur no stories." Mr. Barker is
himself responsible for a translation which he prefers
to call a paraphrase, and it may be admitted that
he has cleverly retained the atmosphere of subtlety
suggested by the gifted author. The instament
which takes its place on the programme throughout
the present week is concerned with Anatolis con¬
fesso suspicious of the fidelity of all women. He is
in love with the beautiful Hilda, upon whom he
exercises his power of hypnotism, and though placed
in the position of asking her a crucial question as to
her faithfulness, he shrinks from doing so, lest his
disappointment be too overwhelming for his future
happiness. Thus he declines to act on the advice of
his cynical friend Max and the incident ends in
the most human manner possible. Mr. Barker, Mr.
Nigel Playfair, and Miss Gertrude Robine gave
finished performances, and, assisted by clever stage
management, made an undeniable success of this first
of the "Anatol series. Among the other now items
in last night's programme quite the most popular
was that of tho Australian entertainer Albert
helan, whose contribution was refined, and as new
as anything can be in this department of vaudeville.