The San Francisco call., 1895-07-16
At THE CITY THEkTERs,
The Lyceum Company Seen in
"The Case of RebelIious
Susan"
HELEN DAUvRAY's DEBUT.
Hoyt's New Musical comedy Finds
Great Favor at the
California.

There was brilliant audience at the
Baldwin last night to celebrate the reopen
ing of the theater and to witness the first
night of Daniel Frohman's Lyceum The
ater Company.
Old favorites were greeted with warm
applause as they made their appearances
and in few cases, as in those of Herbert
Kelcey and w. J. LIE Moyne, the dialogue
had to be interrupted for few moments
till the demonstrativeness of the welcome
had subsidized.
The play was Henry Arthur Jones'
"The Case of Rebellious Susan," which
was produced in London about year ago
and received its initial San Francisco
performance last night. Like the most of the
new English plays 1t deals with the New
Woman question. Lady Susan Harabin, after
six years OF blissful, if monotonous, married
lie, discovers some compromising letters that
her husband has written to another woman.
and as grave family consultation is held as If
the fate of nations depended upon James Har-
rab1n's being brought to book for his matri
monial shortcomings.
tiSusan, who is not the sort of woman to suffer
in silence. listens to all her relatives we'll
meant advice, and finding it not in accordance
with her ideas that "what is sauce for the
goose is sauce for the gander," announces her
intention OF kicking over the traces, snaps her
fingers in her husbands face and goes off to
Egypt, where she demonstrates her emancipa-
ton by flirting desperately with another man.
MISS Isabel Irving was very dashing
ana independent Susan, a trife too
for It was gsfhaRsd naTd to believe s nfss that a's
woman used to good society would flounce and
plrouette as she did, even though she was suf-
terlng the mental agony of knowing her hus-
band was false. Perhaps it was the leaven of
the new woman working in her. In the other
two acts the leaven seemed to have had time
to settle down, and she was ladylike as well as
charmingly self-assertive. In her scene with
the lover picked up in Egypt, Ferguson Pybus,
she was sincere and impressive, and in the last
act she made the most of rebellious Susan.
:, Herbert kelcey was one Of the most sympa-
thetic and finished of the performers as Susan's
uncle, a divorce court judge and an old bach
elor, who only seemed to live to act the part of
good and wise mentor to every one else in
the play. He was always on hand to prevent
elopements, smooth down matrimonial sQuab-
bles and give good advice, whether it was
relished or not. AS rule his advice was re-
ceived with contumely, but this did not pre-
vent him from persever1ng In his dislnterested
course. His own love scene with Miss IneZ
Questrel, part played by Annie Irish, was a
charming bit of acting.
Herbert Kelcey had a niece, Elaine Shrimp
ton, who was even more pronounced in her
views on the woman question than Susan her
self. This young lady, whose role was excel
lently interpreted by Elizabeth Tyrel, insisted
on marrying an esthetical gentleman, who in
some mysterious way was going to stamp HIM
self on the age. Ultimately he himself was
stamped in very unpleasant manner on the
eye by a "coarse, brutal butcher" whose wife
had been induced to join the Boadicea Society
by Elaine, who insisted on being woman's
rights orator.
lie Moyne was excellent as Admiral Sir Joseph
Darby, and Mrs. Charles Walcot made the most
of Lady Darby's role. The staging was excel
lent.