Play. 3 acts. By John Van Druten. 5 males, 8 females. 2 interiors.
Modern costumes.
Produced with preeminent success in London and New York. Mr. Van
Druten's new play deals with the women of one family, women so unlike
that they set one another off startlingly. There is the tart, querulous
old Mrs. Venables, and there are her three daughters--Nellie who is
married and whose life has slipped away from her in the provinces; Liz
who is divorced and whose life has been brilliant and unconventional on
the Continent; and Evie who is a widow and whose life has been spent
being happy through others--her husband, her children, her friends.
Evie's young daughter Alex is the fifth woman in the family, and the
drama of _The Distaff Side_ centers chiefly in her and her two suitors
who represent such different things. But if the plot belongs to Alex,
the honors of the play go to her mother--for seldom has a modern
playwright drawn so warm and womanly and endearing a character as Evie.
The family life of these people is extraordinarily human, but it is Evie
that it revolves around, Evie who lights it up.
(Royalty, $35.00.) Price, 75 cents.