The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-29
MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.
MIR. j s.. Clarke ns "B oh Tyke."

MIR. j =. CInrite ns ''Bob Tykev
A comedian if he is n thorough artist, ought
to be able to express tragic emotions; and the
reserve of tragic force that Mr.. Clarke only
occasionally gives his auditors glimpse of in
such personations as y'Newman .Noggs," "Bob
Briefly" and "Bob Tyke,' is one of the best
evidences that could be afforded of the versa
tility OF his talents and the soundness of his
artistic method. 1t is not of course necessary
or perhaps desirable, that an actor whose forte
is especially eccentric comedy should be able to
play every description of tragedy, and it would
afford us no particular qualification to see Mr..
Clarke attempt the representation of such a
character ''King Lear" for instance. We
remember that some years ago
at the Arch Street Theatre, on
one of the exceptional occasions known as a
benefit night, he did play Richard III, and a
very funny performance it certainly was. The
moral of this experiment was that this particu-
lar line of tragedy was beyond Mr.. Clarke's
range, but not great while after having con-
vulsed an audience with laughter over his
"Richard, he astonished those who imagined
that he could play nothing but low comedy by
achieving brilliant artistic success in the char
acter of "Bob Tyke," in Morton's comedy of
The School Of Reform. Since then this has
been one of Mr.. Clarke's most admired roles,
because it calls for the expression of
deeper emotions than are incident to
pure comedy. and because it fur
nishes powerful contrast to the
ordinary round of comic parts with which the
actor is identified. To what extent the public
has become accustomed to regard Mr.. Clarke
merely as a comic actor was shown last night
by the laughter that his acting in the early
scenes of the play inspired. There is certain
grim humor about bob Tyke" when he first
appears upon the scene, and it requires some
thing of an effort to lose sight of the comedian,
and it is not until the close of the act when
"Tyke" narrates how his broken-hearted old
father bade him farewell as he was taken on
board of the convict ship, that the tragic earn
estness of the performance profoundly i'm
presses the spectator.
In the second act the comedian is lost sight of
altogether, and the look of horror with which
the face of the hardened criminal is transfxed
when he discovers that he has robbed his own
father is a remarkable piece of acting that can
not be forgotten by those who have ever seen it.
The School of Reform is well-written but
rather heavy piece, and cut down as it has been
by Mr.. Clarke, to three acts, its performance
beyond the leading role, does not demand eX-
tended comment. A word of praise, however
is due to Mr.. Morrison for his curously artistic
personation of 'Lord Avondale" last evening
There is a strong dash of absurdity about this
rather dreary character, which is a compound o
''The Stranger" "Sir Edward Mortimer" and
the conventional noble scoundrel who figures il
a good many old English plays but such as il
is, Mr.. Morrison appeared to hit the ideal of the
part as the author sketched it exactly, and il
the figure presented was unlike any English
nobleman that ever lived or breathed, the faul
was not in the actor, but in the part itself.