"AN ENGLISHMAN'S HOME."

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1909, Page 10

"AN ENGLISHMAN'S HOME."

PRODUCTION -IN NE^ YORK., A TEPID .RECEPTION. "An Englishman's Home" was produced in New York last night (stated the' ■New York correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph on 26th March) before a large and curious audience, ana was received -with polite incredulity. It was the second time I had seen the play within four days, and I have nothing really to add <to my report cabled from Atlantic City, New Jersey, and printed in Friday's -Daily Telegraph. Xh» glowing accounts from London tiad excited the American public, and wa were anxious to see a play ■which, had stirred the whole country, and, as we .were informed, ''Bent jLondon to arms." To-day leading American critics slash the play unmercifully as a play, though the New York American admits that "An Englishman's Home" has an idea, rather a bright idea j all is ruined in the cooking." The same genial critic says : "It is dull enough, orude enough, amateurish enough, and inelegant enough to drive every man jack of them, not to arms, ■but to drink." The piece had been poli&hed up since its ordeal at Atlantic City, and there was plenty of blank ammunition and exploding shells. It was, in fact, staged in a style worthy of 'Mr. Charles iFrohman, but all the same it woefully missed fire. In the main the acting was all that was required. Mr. William 'Hawtrey has certain natural gifts that enable Turn, without half trying, to impersonate the stupid, fat, stolid, bewildered, typical middle-class 'Mr. Brown. Mr. Ernest Stallard, as the Incompetent volunteer captain, put the sharpest sort of point to. the satire, having good assistance from Mr. Thomas 'Mills and others. To tell the plain truth, the average American does not know, and fails to appreciate, the conditions under which the Englishman lives, and the problems he must solve, for which reason it is apparent that a play which may form a powerful political tract in England fails in America to provide even a stirring entertainment. This does not mean that long and successful runs are not assured, because all Americans have read about the play in the newspapers, and they are glad to have seen it, because they will not 'have to see it again. "It was a good thing to get over, and we arc grateful that it is over." As for Major dv Maurier, they know that it is his "first offence," and they are not resentful It is the English conditions' of life which. Americans have not mastered, and tha€~is the secret of last night's tepid reception. Now, if the play dealt with. American conditions, and if it had 'been written by an American Army officer, the result might havo been different. An American playright, by whoso side I sat last night, said ho could adapt it so as to produce what he called a howling success ; but, he said, "I would lay the scene on the Pacific Coast, probably in California, and I would make the invaders Japanese. That would appeal to Westerners, and many Easterners as well." The version played nere was that with which London is familiar, and the identity of the enemy was left in the dark.