You and I

You and I (1923), a comedy by Philip Barry. [Belmont Theatre, 174 perf.] Maitland White (H. B. Warner) gave up his beloved painting career when he married so that he could support his family as a successful businessman. Eventually, however, the urge to return to his art proves too much. He paints a portrait, which turns out to be only good enough to be sold for advertising purposes. He muses, “There is no such hell on earth as that of the man who knows himself doomed to mediocrity in the work he loves.” But he can persuade his son, Roderick (Geoffrey Kerr), who is prepared to give up his own dream of becoming an architect in order to marry Veronica Duane (Frieda Inescort), not to repeat his mistake. This Harvard Prize play, known originally as The Jilts, was Barry's first work to receive a professional production when it was presented by Richard G. Herndon. Theatrical historian Edwin J. Bonner has called it “an intriguing tragicomedy studded with epigrammatic wit.”