The San Francisco Dramatic Review (1908)

6 THE SAN FRANCISCO DRAMATIC REVIEW February 7, igi^j' Correspondence NEW YORK. Feb. i.—H. V. Es- mond and Eva Moore, two London favorites, who were playing Eliza Comes to Stay at the Garrick Theatre, appeared last week in another work, The Dear Fool, by Mr. Esmond, with his wife in the leading role. She enacts "the dear fool." The play, which is in three acts, is more ambi- tious in plan than Eliza Comes to Stay. It proved to be a delightful comedy which kept the audience amused throughout. Its first performance won every sign of success. Its heroine is a widow of the usual age, with a son who is already a naval cadet and one who is younger. She realizes—as the first act reveals—that she is no longer as young as she was. This rejection is sadder from the fact that she is in love with an altogether attractive joung man—physically and otherwise perfect—who is so much her junior that she has decided not to marry him. lUit she admits to the elderly suitor, who sympathizes with her, that she would not mind one '"gorgeous" year of married life. The first act ends with a telegram which calls her to London to see this youth, w^ho is about to start for Canada. The opening scene of the second act shows her de- parture and the family listens to her impromptu excuses as to the neces- sity of seeing a friend who has tele- grai)hed her to come to London im- mediately. The rehabilitation of the lady is therefore complete. Presum- ably she has been enough cliastened by her suffering to deserve the con- tinued affection of the man who has so long desired to marry her. Mr. Es- mond is too skilful a playwright not to niake this episode appear as harm- less as possible, although its exact na- ture is not mitigated. Of her guilt there is no question. But the dramatist has done his work well in i)reventing the audience from sharing the views of her strict sister as to the punishment this volatile heroine .should receive. A youthful actor by name Reginald (Irasdorf contributed as much to the amusement of the audience as any of his seniors. As the naval cadet he re- vealed an amazing composure and a sense of humor that asserted itself in all his scenes. Estelle Despa portrayed the hardness of the spinster's nature. Her ])crformance was nevertheless skilful and intelligent. The Dear Fool is vastly more interesting than its pre- decessor ; it may be for that reason the actors appeared to so much greater advantage. * * * Oliver Morosco pro- duced 1 lelp Wanted, a new drama by Jack Lait. at the Court Square The- atre in S])ringfield. Mass., last Tues- day night, with a cast specially .selected for giving the play at the Maxine El- liott Theatre, New York, on I'eb. 9, including Charles Richman, CIrace El- liston, John ^liltern, Lois Meredith, Wm. Raymond, Jessie Ralph, Charles A. Abbe, Katherine Emmet, Edna Mayo, Rosamond O'Kane, Lorraine Ruling, Vivian Rushmore and M. S. Golding. The theme of the play con- cerns a girl who works as a sten- ographer in private offices of business men who have tendencies toward flirt- ing. The play is in three acts and four scenes, all laid in New York. * * * The Stage Society, for the benefit of the actors' fund, acted at the Lyceum Theatre last Monday afternoon an American play which had never been Dick Wilbur Co FOURTH SEASON OF SUCCESS THE BIGGEST REPERTOIRE COMPANY ON THE COAST Open in Eureka in stock, beginning January 3—indefinitelv. seen before. It was written by Eliza- beth Reed and called Heap Game Watch, the name applied by the In- dians to the game warden of a section in the Hitter Root Mountains in Mon- tana. There the action of the play pas.ses. Tile first and second acts show the living room of a ranch and the second pas.ses "on the lake trail where it cro.sses the outlet of the lake. " The dialogue is generally characteris- tic of the Western figures in the play. Its truth to Western American life in its details is not to be cjuestioned. A dweller on lieaver Creek is di.scovered by the game warden with elk in his ])ossession when that means two years imprisonment. He takes to the woods. His daughter falls in love with a mar- ried man and wants to go with him to the North. Which of the.se two themes tiie dramatist intended to make the subject of her drama was not at first clear. It was not until the last act, in fact, that the father's willing- ness to abandon his lawless habits oi catching trout and killing game out of season was used as an arginiient to compel his daughter to give up her plan of elo])ing with her married lover to the North. It was first the father who started off to lUick Centre to give himself up to the police. His daughter kept to the agreement and sent away her lover alone. * * * Defi- nite plans for the remainder of this season in the Longacre Theatre here and his Cort Theatre, Chicago, have been made by H. H. I'razee, who made the announcement that H. B. Warner had signed a contract to star under the Frazee management for the next two years. Following the en- gagement of Dorothy Donnelly and Lou-Tellegen, who move from the Thirty-ninth Street Theatre to the Longacre next Monday in Maria Rosa, Warner will appear in Billy Black, a comedy drama i)y Charles Bradley. * * * Harrison Grey Fiske has signed contracts for a new play in which Mrs. Fiske will be seen next autumn. It is an eighteenth-century costume com- edy by John Luther Long and Frank Stay ton, and will afford Mrs. Fiske a role said to be as brilliant as Becky Sharp. * William l-'aversham an- nounces the engagement of Constance Collier to play the part of Emilia in the revival of Othello, which will be- gin in the Lyric Theatre on February 9. * * * Henry W. Savage has en- gaged Irene Fenwick to ])lay the lead- ing woman's ])art in .\long Came Ruth. Holman Day's ada])tation of the I'Vench comedy. La Demoiselle de Magasin. * * * The Dartmouth Dra- matic Association, represented by a company of twenty young men, will ])resent at the Fulton Theatre, on Feb. 16 and 17, its own interpretation of The Misleading Lady, the farce com- edy by Chas. Goddard and Paul Dick- ey, which is now playing in that play- house. The Monday afternoon per- formance will take the form of a pro- fessional matinee given to the leading ladies of the New York theatrical companies. The re.st of the house will be .sold to the public, as will all the seats at the Tuesday performance. :.: M: =i; Changc, a ])lay by J. O. I-Vancis, was brought on last Tuesday evening Send for New Catalogue Stating Kind Desired THEATRICAL CATALOGUE af Sh»w Print- ing. Rapertoire. Stock. Circuc, Wild Wtst, Ttnt Shows, Etc. FAIR PRINTING. Fain. Rum. Aviation, Auto, Hone. Stock Shows, Etc. MAGIC PRINTING. Hypnotism, Illusion, Mind Rsadin^, Etc. MINSTREL PRINTING. White or Coloffd, With or Without Till*. Etc MOVING PICTURE PRINTING. Etc. WESTERN PLAYS, Etc. FOLDERS o( Non-Roralty Plays with Printing. Skow and Thtatrical Printers Lithographers, Engravers National Stoel( Hangers and Posters on Hand for every Kiad of Amusement Enterprise WRITE ST. LOUIS OFFICE - 7TH AND ELM STS, Salt Lake City, Utah Where the Cuisine and Cabaret are the ^\)t jMecca of tt)e ^rofes^gion v.. I.. W^II.I.i;. MKr. at the ilooth Theatre. Change is laid in a Welsh coal-mining town. The clash is between the old and new gen- eration — between the father and mother, who were brought up to work, fear (iod and {jrei^are to escape hell fire and damnation, and the sons wliom they have educated, who come iiack to the old home with their free- thinking anil ske])ticism in religion, their unionism and strikes and ever- lasting figiiting over the rights of the workingman. It is at the moment that tins clash reaches its long prepared climax that tiie play begins. John Henry Price, the pride and pet of the two old folks, who have struggled and starved to make a minister of him, has read and thought too much in the uni- versity at Cardiff. "Some say that Darwin is to I)lame," he explains to his heartbroken fatiier and mother; "some, in their desperation, would be for turning to the Roman Church. Some- how the Catholics leave a place for joy in their religion," says he, looking back on the harsh puritanism he has i)een brought u]) in. At any rate, he decides to leave the mini.stry—he can stand it no longer. His brother, Lew- is, the fighting one of the trio of brothers, is urging the men on in their strike—there's a new spirit in the world, he cries, and Lewis is very eloc|uent; he is out of ])atience with those too narrow and stupid and big- oted to understand it, even though they be his own father and mother. Change is a work of sincerity worth seeing. * * * L'nder the direction of .Milton and .Sargent Aborn, the Cen- tury Opera Co., which is under the ])rotection of the .same financial in- terests that back the celebrated Metro- politan Opera House, has been giving si)lendid English Opera this .season. One of its latest additions to a li.st of excellent singers is Orville Harrold, the tenor who made such a furore in London under the management of Os- car ilammerstein after his first season in .\merica with the Maniiatian Opera Company that was absorbed by the Metrojjolitan. The Hammerstein forces, of course, sought out an in- junction to prevent Harrold from a])- pearing last Tuesday night, but the [ustice of the Supreme Court before wliom the j^roceedings were held did not intimate that he would be in any hurry to decide the case, and in tlu meantime Harrold would continue tt sing for the Century Company. Tin repertoire of the Century for severa weeks will consist of Cavelleria Kus ticana. in conjunction with Hansel ani Gretel. Manon, I'agliacci and Tlu- Se cret of Suzanne, Marta of the 1.'W land, Aida. Quo \'adis and Natonia It can truthfully be .said that the ( en tury ()])era Co., giving opera in I'.ng lish, has filled a long-felt want, am that its c(jnstant patrons get more L;> n nine enjoyment from the productMn; than those who go to the Aletropi'I;tar merely for fashion's sake. Manx 0; the patrons are the same, for it i~ m uncommon thing to hear a lady in ihi audience at the Century .say: "I luan this opera down at the Metropol iai last week, so I thought I would f iiu u]) here tonight and enjoy it." It ..a- in the hoi)es of getting this cla^- 01 genuine opera enthusiasts that ( '-tai Hannnerstein started out to build lli^ Lexington Avenue (Jpera Hou.se, l)ul owing both to the opposition of th( courts in interpreting his contraci with the .Metropolitan and also the in ability of his builders to complete th work on contract time, Oscar's opei is not to be until some time next a^ tumn. even if then. In the meantir the Century enjoys a free field a takes care of all of the natural ovei How from the Metropolitan. CAN IX D. HIGFI SAX r,l£RXARDIXO, Jan. 28. At the Opera lIou.se (Mrs. M. L. Ki^ linger, mgr.). 27, The Candy Sh featuring Rock and I'ulton, played every seat sold. It is evident, in t section at least, that good musi comedy is what the people want. Ai< other big Iu)use is assured by the a^ vance sale for Emma Trentini in Tl' Firefiy, 30. .Adele, the I'Vench opi etta, is billed for Feb. 28. Pascjualel Last Days of Pompeii, in eight reel^ Jan. 31 and Feb. i, matinee and evei ing. .\uditoriuni and Temple, wi moving jiictures and vaudeville, ai catering to good houses. ]. E. RICH. J ef The P>lnc Ilird, Maeterlinck's e» c|uisite fanta.sy which played a wonder ful engagement at the Cort Tlieatr< last season, is due to reveal it>ell again shortly at that playhouse