| |
| Never raise your voice, my dear Gerald. |
|That is the only thing left to |
|distinguish us from the lower classes. |
|_Lord Wynlea in "The Best People"._ |

| The new comedy at the Lyric Theatre is |
|written in accordance with Lord Wynlea's |
|dictum quoted above. It is mannerly, well |
|poised, ingratiating and deft. As a minor |
|effort in the high comedy style it is |
|welcome, because it affords a respite |
|from the "plays with a punch" and the |
|prevalent boisterous specimens of the |
|work of yeomen who go at the art of |
|dramatic writing with main strength. |
| |
| "The Best People" is by Frederick |
|Lonsdale and Frank Curzen, who manifestly |
|know some of them. It was done at |
|Wyndham's Theatre in London, and we think |
|that in a comfortable English playhouse, |
|with tea between acts and leisurely |
|persons with whom to visit in the foyer, |
|it would make an agreeable matinee. |
|Certainly it is admirably acted here, and,|
|as has been intimated, its quiet drollery |
|and its polite maneuvering make it a |
|relief. |
| |
| Whether American audiences, used to |
|stronger fare than tea at the theatre, |
|will find it sustaining is a question that|
|would seem to be answered by the |
|announcement, just received from the |
|Lyric, that the engagement closes next |
|Saturday evening. |
| |
| The fable relates how the Honorable Mrs.|
|Bayle discovered that her husband and Lady|
|Ensworth had been flirting with peril |
|during her absence in Egypt, how she |
|blithely threw them much together, with |
|the resu