Three One Act Plays by Mr. Granville Barker. (Sidgwick and
Jackson. 3s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Granville Barker's writing is of so high a standard and his characterization so natural and convincing that his plays are always pleasant to read as literature, quite apart from any acting value they may possess. Indeed, so untheatrical is his style that the reader is at first inclined to wonder if the plays would be successful as drama. Yet, as has been proved by the per- formances of The Voysey Inheritance and Waste, Mr. Barker's work can be as interesting on the stage as in the study. Of the three plays in the present volume, Vote by Ballot is easily first—an ex- tremely clever and amusing comedy. Rococo, which some readers may remember to have seen on the London stage, is a farcical sketch of family quarrels over an heirloom. The duologue Farewell to the Theatre is somewhat disappointing. As with The Madras House, the play is rather overwhelmed by talk, and neither the actress who has done so much for the " high-brow " drama nor her solicitor friend is very convincing. Almost as interesting as the plays are Mr. Barker's stage directions and comments, but we cannot help feeling that they tend somewhat to affectation in description of detail. For instance, we are told that the wall-paper in the vicarage drawing-room in Rococo had a frieze of a "sort of desert scene ; a mountain, a lake, three palm-trees, two camels " ; but who in an audience beyond the front stalls is to know (except by the aid of a telescope) whether the frieze is of camels or canaries, sailing- boats or rosebuds !
Previous page
