Los Angeles herald., 1892-02-19
ADJUSTMENTS.

Sheridan's sterling comedy, The Ri
walls, received rare good treatment at the
hands OF Mr.. Jefferson and his company
of players at the Grand opera house last
night. The auditorium was filed with
the best people of this community, and
their appreciation of the rich feast of
comedy was both intelligent and hearty.
The callow patron of the stage who
takes upon himself to deride much
that may be euphemistically said
about the old school of players,
and the old comedies that to
the intelligent admirerswill ever rank
as classic and standard elements in the
anatomy of true humor, will find his
most forceful rebuke in such masterly
presentments as that given by Mr.. JEFF
ferson's company last night.
No comedian today possesses the same
JUNCTION, the infinite ability to picture
the delicate lights and shadows of COM
edy that Joseph Jefferson manifests in
his Characterization of Bob Acres.
In admirable simplicity, in the vary
ing delineations of exquisite niceties of
expression and gesture, in the full
rounded curriculum of all the processes
of art that make art the stimulation and
the signet of nature, Mr.. Jefferson i'll
his field of dramatic exploitation today
stands without a rival. Fraught with
all the potent touches of ripe expert
ence, and gifted with all the charms and
graces Of natural artistic apprehen-
sion of the subtleties of true methods,
Mr.. Jefferson gave last night in his pre-
sentiment of Bob Acres, picture that
was full of freshness and power to
please the mind, delight the eve and
warm the cookies of the heart until the
genial glow melted all into tears of
laughter.
Most delightfully."- environed was Mr..
Jefferson in The Rivals, for where could
one find more acceptable Mrs. Mala-
prop than Mrs. John Drew? Where
find more charming, beautiful, coy,
moodful, sentimental Lydia Languish
than Viola Allen, or a better Sir An
thony than Mr.. Owen? Who could
have been selected with better iude-
ment to take up Florence's mantle than
Louis James? Who would be more
pleasing than handsome Jack Barnes as
Captain Absolute?
Take it all in all, the company is like
a rich, full-bodied glass of rare old wine.
1t has all the bouquet, the favor and
sparkle, and its elements combine to-
,gether with the same felicitous con-
cordance. Mrs. Drew today holds q
warm place in the hearts of all lovers
of the standard drama. She is
the ideal actress of the good old
school. 1t were hard to picture any
one as possessing the same rare com.
bination of excellences. Mr.. James,
known in tragic lines, pleasantly graft
fed all with his easy impersonation of
the good old style Irish gentleman.
Especially is he to be commended for
giving only the slightest indication of
the brogue, for it has no place with Sir
Lucius. Trinity college man, speaking
good Dublin Doric. Will Owen we have
seen in many roles, since the days
when he was in John Ellsler's stock
and it is a pleasure to say that the
promises of the past are rounding into
charming vistas of artistic histrionic ex-
cellence. His Sir Anthony is finished
example of the results of good training,
study and natural abilities of rare or
der.
Miss Allen is all that fancy could
paint Lydia Languish, and Mr.. Denham
as David, Mr.. Owsley as Falkland, and
Miss Bender as Lucy were more than
acceptable. The cast was distributed as