More Portmanteau Plays. Stuart Walker

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style="font-size:15px;">      Yes, yes, old woman. That is it. Old woman!—Who are you? I am not wont to cry my griefs to any one.

THE GAKI

      Griefs? You have griefs?

OBAA-SAN

      Ay! Even I—she whom they call Obaa-San—have griefs.—Even I! But they are locked deep within me. No one knows!

THE GAKI

      Someone must know.

OBAA-SAN

      I shall tell no one.

THE GAKI

      Someone must know!

OBAA-SAN

      You speak like some spirit—and I feel that I must obey.

THE GAKI

      Someone must know!

OBAA-SAN

      I shall not speak. Who cares?—What is it I shall do? Tell my story—unlock my heart—so that O-Sode-San may laugh and laugh and laugh. Is it not enough that some evil spirit feeds upon my deep unrest?

THE GAKI

      How can one feed upon your unrest when you lock it in your heart? (The voices of O-Sode-San and O-Katsu-San are heard calling to Obaa-San) Here come some friends of yours. Tell them your tale.

      [He goes out.

OBAA-SAN

      Strange. I feel that I must speak out my heart.

      [O-Sode-San and O-Katsu-San come in.

O-SODE-SAN

      Good morning, grandmother!

      OBAA-SAN (with a strange wistfulness in her tone)

      Good morning, O-Sode-San. Good morning, O-Katsu-San. May the bright day bring you a bright heart.

O-KATSU-SAN

      And you, Obaa-San.

O-SODE-SAN

      How is the weeping willow tree, grandmother?

OBAA-SAN

      It is there—close to me.

O-SODE-SAN

      And does it speak to you, grandmother—

OBAA-SAN

      I am no grandmother! I am no grandmother! I am no mother! O-Sode, can you not understand? I am no mother.—I am no wife.—There is no one.—I am only an old woman.—In the spring I see the world turn green and I hear the song of happy birds and feel the perfumed balmy air upon my cheek—and every spring that cheek is older and more wrinkled and I have always been alone. I see the stars on a summer night and listen for the dawn—and there never has been a strong hand to touch me nor tiny fingers to reach out for me. I have heard the crisp autumn winds fight the falling leaves and I have known that long winter days and nights were coming—and I have always been alone—alone. I have pretended to you—what else could I do? Grandmother! Grandmother! Every time you speak the name, the emptiness of my life stands before me like a royal Kakemono all covered with unliving people.

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      1

      Since America's entrance in the War given over to the "movies."

      2

      Mr. John Palmer, in his book, "The Future of the Theater," gives the following as the programme for the then, 1913, projected National Theater. The war intervened, however, and the venture has been lost sight of for the moment. This statement is even more rea

1

Since America's entrance in the War given over to the "movies."

2

Mr. John Palmer, in his book, "The Future of the Theater," gives the following as the programme for the then, 1913, projected National Theater. The war intervened, however, and the venture has been lost sight of for the moment. This statement is even more reasonable than that of Mr. Archer, for this is intended for practical use in England while his was merely taken from France.

"… it seems desirable to state that a repertory theater should be held to mean a theater able to present at least two different plays of full length at evening performances in each completed week during the annual season, and at least three different plays at evening performances and matinées taken together … and the number of plays presented in a year should not be less than twenty-five. A play of full length means a play occupying at least two-thirds of the whole time of any performance. But two two-act plays, or three one-act plays, composing a single programme, should, for the purposes of this statute, be reckoned as equivalent to a play of full length."

As Mr. Palmer remarks "this statute is both elastic and watertight."

E. H. B.

3

See Appendix for complete repertories.

4

Announcement has just been made that Miss George will continue her repertory during the season of 1919-1920.

5

They only failed for $3000, however: the rent of a Broadway theater for a week.

6

This statement hardly applies to The Neighborhood Theater, or to that successor to The Washington Square Players, The Theater Guild, the work of which at the Garrick Theater, New York, during the first part of 1919 has been excellent in the very highest degree.

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