Two Comedies.

To even the most capable actors and the most intelligent directors almost everyone is accustomed to give credit for no more than an "interpretation" of the author's work, thus assuming that they cannot, at best, do more than call to the attention those things which, even though latent, the author must have managed somehow to suggest. One forgets that the playwright, unlike the novelist, is directly responsible for only a small part of the sum total of impressions which one receives at any theatrical performance and that for many of them he may not deserve, even indirectly, the credit. It is quite possible for the director, the designer, and the company to take hold of a relatively barren script and surround it with gestures, intonations, and backgrounds sufficiently significant in themselves to transform the work, exactly as a novelist nay transmute, by his style, his descriptions, and his asides, an unimportant narrative into a charming piece of belles lettres. Perhaps it was a desire to prove something of this sort which led the Theater Guild to begin its season with a piece so unimportant in itself as the play "The Guardsman."