Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-17
JANE MAKES LAUGHTER.
An Old-Fashioned Farce on the London
Plan at the Alvin Theater.

An Old-Fashioned Farce on the London
Plan at the Alvin Theater.
"Jane, screaming farce in three acts
and not a acomedy, as it is described on the
programme, was the novelty offered at the
Alvin Theater last night 1t is from the
French originally, an adaptation of the
same play that in an Americanized form is
a vehicle for Roland Reed under the title
of 'Lend Me Your Wife" But the only
trace of its French origin that is left is a
slight broadness, verging on riskiness in
some of the situations. Otherwise it is an
English farce of the old-fashioned sort.
1t is built for nothing but laughter; there
is no contrasting of pathos and humor;
dialogue, situations, action and plot all
conspire for laughter. Such things are we'll
in their way, and there is art no doubt in
Jane" though more of it in the playing
than the writing of it. 1t were well acted
last night, and if roars of laughter was any
criterion served its purpose.
Jane" is story of the young bachelor,
so frequent in farce, who runs in debt and
falls back upon usually complaisant uncle.
The young man in Jane" to account for
his extravaganza tells his uncle that he is
married, and the later being at distance
believes it. Then the uncle comes on to
see this spendthrift wife OF his nephew, and
of course the young man is in pretty stew
10 avoid an erooss. He finally persuade. a
housemaid in his employ who has married
his man-servant to pretend for few hours
TO be his wife. Jane the housemaid
for consideration aglees, the old uncle
arrives, and series of impossible
hut prodigiously funny incidents
occur. In the end, when the audience has
haJ q, g. Al
short, the uncle discovers the truth, and q
regulation wind-up pairs off everybody hap
PLY. The play is an example of what a
vast amount depends upon crowding action
and incident into play. The plot of
Jane" is the fimsiest, the dialogue is
mostly trivial and commonplace, and there
is no character In il that we have not
known in stageland since farces were first
written: yet because the story unfolds itself
in action, not talk, in ridiculous
situation upon situation, SO quickly that
the audience haven't time to think how i'm
possible it all is, or to do anything but
laugh, Jane" as an entertainment is a
success.
This happy result is due. as has been
said, very largely to the cleverness of the
actors; to Mr.. Paul Arthur, who is the
deDonair engaging young spendthrift, and
played the part in a breezy Wyndhamesque
style, to Miss tombstone Bennett as Jane
to Mr.. NJ. c. DAILY ss the old uncle, and to
Mr. r. F. Cotton as the man
servant, William. Miss Bennett very
skillfully portrayed the servant-girl
disguised as a fine lady, although the char
acter is not drawn with enough skill to
allow Miss Bennett anything like full scope
for her talents. The English accent and
the servants hall air of Mr.. Cotton made
his embodiment of William life-like. The
benevolent old uncle was happily presented
BY Mr.. DAILY. The very slight background
characters were satisfactorily presented,
although the shock of seeing '@rhe Little
Mountain Maid' of Adonis' days in such a
disguise as the frowsy, blowsy mother of
The BABY may be almost two much for the
admirer OF Amelia Summerville to