Francis Hackett

“ A Change in Shaw
Pygmalion, a romance in five acts, by G. Bernard Shaw. Presented at the Park Theatre, New York, Oct. 12, 1914.
IF a play has breath in its body, it lives outside as well as inside the theatre. Tragedy or fantasy, comedy or farce, it goes with us from the footlights to the street. It may fade, like a glance of understanding. It may be forgotten, like a sympathy outlived. But however fleeting its impression, it must, if it is to withstand criticism, persuade us that its allegiance is to life. ”

“ As comedy, at any rate, it is spurious. Shaw has stooped to fabricate a play. It is only fair, however, to ascribe some of this delinquency to the cast. It is hard to believe that any part could have survived the conscientious over-acting of Mr. Merivale as the professor. He kept jumping on imagination's toes. Mr. Edmund Gurney, on the other hand, awakened delighted appreciation as Eliza's father. If he captivated every soul in the theatre, it was by richest reference to life. ”

“ He storms at the problem Eliza now presents, and she, passionately human, hates him for loving him. They exchange "brute" and "liar," create a situation, fly asunder, and later, after a burlesque frenzied chase, unite. The union is deferred for the reappearance of Eliza's father, now endowed by a funny-column American millionaire, and converted into a funny-column social reformer. The fatehr departs, to point a skit on the ascent to marriage via property, leaving Henty Higgins to expound Shaw's favorite crux, "I can't live with her, and I can't live without her." ”