THINKING MADE EASY BY THE COPLEY PLAYERS

The Mutual Admiration Society held the first meeting of its annual convention at the Copley Theatre yesterday afternoon and for the price of admission the literate public can enjoy a return engagement of the Society on Thursday afternoon. Mrs. Frances A. F. Saltonstall has written a play with a Boston accent on the cerebrations of the human brain and the success of mental telepathy and has titled it, "As He Thinketh."

Though the scene is said to be on Madison Avenue, the audience wasn't fooled for one moment. They knew it was Mount Vernon Street. And everything contributed to their convictions. Even the maid spoke Bostonese. But, of course, the fact that the accents were not convincing, would be quite pardonable if the play had been.

Plays with a purpose are bad at best. But preserve us from plays with a purpose when they fail to convince. This one started out to prove that there is something in this matter of mental telepathy after all, and succeeded only in proving the contrary, for if there had been a speck of such ability in that cast, someone would have telegraphed the cues to his partner.

Before this review is complete there must be some mention of the play in case anyone still intends going. A young debutante has just written a play. The play is called "As He Thinketh." Delightfully complicating, these plays within plays. All the cats wonder how she could have written it. But since she wrote it while recovering from a nervous breakdown, the audience is given to understand that that explains everything, for anything may happen in a nervous breakdown. Then, when the author has firmly established the nervous breakdown, the successful play, the handsome young nerve specialist, and the thoughtless young lady, in stalks mental telepathy. It comes in in the person of the mother of young playwright. She insinuates in no uncertain terms that the play is a steal.

She tells the parents of the young woman that her son had been a friend of their daughter, and that there is no reason why she might not have stolen his play. As he is dead, she alone can claim the rights that his genius has earned, and she means to see right done by her boy. Of course you know the explanation now.

The play had heights which were only surpassed by its deeps. Alan Mowbray as the young physician made love to Miss Standing, who played the young lady playwright with his left hand while he solved the riddle with his right. He nearly fell asleep along with us but his recoveries out of a sound sleep were nothing short of marvelous. May Ediss was well cast as the mother of the wronged young man and soothed the audience with her well-bred voice. She was in great contrast to the girl's mother, played by Elspeth Dudgeon. Miss Dudgeon was the only person on the stage who was supposed to refuse to believe in telepathy, and she should have made the most of it. But any actress who germanizes her t's and g's is not elegible for our all-star cast. All in all, this was just another play to make you this was just another play to make you think.