New Plays

Mme. Simone. The words and music of criticism and acclaim have been combined endlessly to record the career of this French actress, long a personage among the principals of the Parisian stage. She has visited in this vicinity before to barter her accomplishments with local buyers; therefore the major item of importance regarding her return is her importer. Anne Nichols is the individual. Hitherto, Miss Nichols has been chiefly conspicuous as the author and impresario of the ubiquitous Abie's Irish Rose. Artistically one of the worst and financially the greatest achievement of the U. S. Theatre, Abie has put Miss Nichols upon uneasy street. It has rendered her prosperous in dollar bills and penniless in artistic admiration. There are those who suggest irreverently that Miss Nichols is shriving herself before the critics by importing accredited Art.

For Mme. Simone is as definitely Art as Abie's Irish Rose is indefinitely hokum. The French tradition is precise, rigorous and quite apart from life. Stage effects have been tested, analyzed and put up in little packages. Declamation and gesture have been rubbed by custom until they shine like polished pendants. In diagrams and model groups they cluster contentedly about the theatre and quite diffuse the raw beams of light and life.

Therefore the playgoer nourished on the realism toward which our better Broadway tendencies have turned will lack sympathy for Mme. Simone. She will bewilder him a little and probably annoy him. Only if he concedes the virtue of her schooling will he enjoy the lessons she has learned so well. Of France and the Frenchman's Theatre she is a cardinal example. As such she will compel intelligent attention.

Her repertoire opened with L'Aiglon, written by Edmond Rostand for Bernhardt. Following the example of that great actress, Mme. Simone plays the leading male role, that of Napoleon's son. She will follow with Naked, a play by Pirandello, new to America. For the third week, the play will be Mme. Sans-Gene Classics will complete the repertoire.

Stark Young--"Rhythm and color in little frames and patterns from the classical tradition. ... A kind of sporting mental delight in hearing Mme. Simone take the soaring speeches provided for her, to see with what attack she dispatches them one after another, like walking a tight rope through a heavenly grammar."