The morning call., 1891-11-18
THE THEATERS.
''The Tinted Venus" Trayesty
Of "rygmalien and Galatea."
The Runaway Wife" The Magistrate"
Tardlly Played at the Alcazar-" Mme.
Cartouche General Mention.

Beyond question the Vokcs company
nave not given the public as good bill at
the Baldwin this week as they did the last
But, as Inc engagement is for three weeks
ana three pieces are played every evening,
there must, OF necessity, be streak of lean
as well as OF TAT in the business. The pres
ent bill may be called tho streak of lean,
rendered digestibe only by the sauce pi-
quante OF Felix Morris artistic acting The
performance opens with one-act play
called "Cadwallader's WILL" where legal
rapaclty and knavery is defeated by a sup
posed dying man before his taper of life
goes out for good and all. Morris enacted
the dying Cadwallader, aud the neatness Of
1t Is an excuse for its tedious and naturally
melancholy character. Sandwehed be-
tween this and THE Tinted Venus" is
+ red Sidney's wig and Gown" where
Courtenay Thorpe as Frank Warburton,
barrlster, and Rosina Vokes as Polly
Meadowleigh, his fancee. do their cleverest
work. The Tinted Venus" is forced in
Its business and incomplete in its
situations. Our readers can easily
form an idea OF the style of thing
it is, when we describe it as, in the main, a
coarse and broad travesty Of "Pygmalion
and Galatea." The story has already been
printed IN The CALL. Venus Miss V0kes)
will stand Tor the vivified statue and the
London barber FeliX Norris, to whom she
Drugs no end OF trouble, for Pygmalion, the
sculptor, who was hunted nearly to death
by the Work OF his chisel and as the result
OF all ILL pious wish. The classical gravity
Of the one has given place in the other to
low farelcal fun. In both, however, the idea
and motive are the same, and Wilde, no
doubt, took the hint from Gilbert. Morris
plays the barber well. as he does everything
he undertakes, and Miss Vokes excels in a
Carmenclta-like skirt-dance. Thorpe created
sensation by his makeup a 5 dude in the
Darbet-shop. The audience laughed but
scantliy. and on the whole received The
Tinted Venus with sort of cool civility.
Bin Will be continued all the week.
Fred Maeder's Drama.
In the domestic drama called 1.-THE Run
away Wife" written by the late Fred
Maeder, who had such an itch for stage
literature that his dramatic compositions
are numbered by tie hundreds almost, there
are many opportunities for good acting 1t
. is now running with the Mckee Rankin
Company ut the Bush-street, and these op-
pOrtunities are we'll taken in some instances.
The motive of the piece is that blind hus-
band doubts without reason the fidelity of
his wife, and she leaves him, in the hope
that absence may enable her to better the
condition Of both. Mckee Rankin plays
IN llb uuouSuu, Will Il
good deal OF rough pathos. and the wife,
Lady Alice, finds good Interpreter in Miss
Amelia Bingham. The character, however,
that stands out with almost brutal dis
tinctlveness is that of Hester Eastman
(Mrs. F. NJ. Bates, his sister-iu-law and
mistress of the old homestead, where East
man and his wife, being in Poverty, have
taken temporary refuge. Hester is a
termagant, and makes the lives of both the
refugees miserable by her conduct and her
tongue. As a specimen of "strong acting
1t would be hard to find its equal Last
evening Lou is Schmldts orchestra made
bone solo, II Balen," played in a mastery
manner by Mr.. +. K Tobin. On Saturday
and Sund ay evenings. November 2lst and
22d, Mr.. Rankin will close his engagement
with Joaquin Miller's play, THE DanItes"
Rank in appearing in his original Creation,
Sandy.