The herald., 1895-10-22
AT THE THEATERS

The Burnank-It smells little like
Ouida ana tastes bit after David Bel
asca. But it is neither. Arthur w. Pi-
nero created Sweet Lavender, and Daniel
Frohman discovered the play for Ameri"
ca. The piece is strong, good, rsspecta-
bic and English, and gives to the indi-
vidual memt cas- of the Frawley company.
without an exception, an opportunity to
do better work than anything else which
the organization has so far given during
its Los Angeles engagement.
Sweet Lavender is one OF those British
sermons which Our cousins across the wa
ter give to us at times while resting be-
tween lapses of the Second Mrs. Tan
gueray and Lady Wihdermere' Fan. 1t
is n homily in three acts. each line of
which is intended to teach m oral and
each line succeeding just as the author
expected that it would. There aro some
few paradoxes and cynicisms in the play
| which might have done credit to Oscar
Wilde, had that peculiarly brilliant gen.
Jus ever permitted his mind to run in the
direction OF cleanly groove for the peri
cd OF at least two minutes at time.
The story is not at all remarka BILE.
Godfrey Wedderburn. banker, early in
lite has an affair with Ruth Rolf,
country maid. A daughter, Sweet Law
ent Hale. Wedderburn's adopted son,
falls in love with the girl, who IS, with
her mother, the laundress in Hale's
chambers in Brain court, where Hale is
living rs law student. Ruth Rolf. with
her own life i'll view, objects to the union
Wedderbu.n's sister, wants Clement Hale
to wed her daughter, Minnie. While
Wedderburn is at Hale's apartments he is
confronted by Ruth. who, with Lavender,
are about to leave their employment for
parts unknown.
| tual. and as IA result Wedderbnrn becomes
seriously ill, having at the same time re-
| ceived Information that his bank has
| failed and that his business partners
have absconded. While he is GONZALES
cling Ruth comes to him as nurse. He
and the Gilhllians, now ruined financially
and with spirits broken, are willing
enough that the course of true love shall
| run smooth. Opposition to the marriage
| between Hale and Lavender IS rem owed
and everyone is happy ever afterward.
| incidentally there are introduced in the
| play remarkably ill-mannered young
American. such as is found only in Brit.
| ish literature. and a broken down bar
| rster whose failing is rum and good ma
| ture. George Leslie portrayed the former
and Charles W. King the latter character.
Both did capital work, King especially
| being remarkably strocg in every one OF
the three acts. Hope Ross made a
sweetly sympathetic Lavender, while
Belle Archer rs Ruth Rolf was at times
bit weak. Maclyn Arbuckle as DR.. De-
lanly, the kindly physician With the Dub
| In accent, did clever bit of character
lillian and Blanche Bates as Minnie, her
daughter, both played their parts with
| natural ease. The balance OF the cast
left but little to be desired. The play runs
all week with a matinee on Saturday.
! The Ensign is underlined for noxt week.
Orpbeum.-Halnes and PettingiI are
by all odds the brightest stars OF the Or
pheum bill this week. Owing to the
washout on the railroad the special seem
cry used in thor sketch, The Only Pool
Room Open, did not arrive in time for
use last night, and therefore sort of i'm
promp tu sketch was put on. However,
! strate that they ars one of the pest teams
! that has ever visited Los Angeles. Their
| jokes are new and witty, and delivered
| with zest that makes hem great go
with the audience: From entry to exit
they fire volley after volley of wit and
repartee which never fails to score. They
received round after round OF applause
last night, and when The Only Pool
Room Open is put on tonight great
things may be expected from Haines and
Pettingill. ~ -' N4
Next in favor came Mcmahon and
King, who do negro sketch, introduce
ing plantation dances. Negro Ministries
have been on the decline in public favor
for several years, and it now takes very
clever negro team to attract more than
passing attention. However, McMahon
and King rank among che best. and will
always command rounds of applause as
long as they are able to dance difficult
steps as acceptably as they did last night.
Murphy and Mack are new corners, the
best feature OF whose N35 performance is
Miss Ross Clemence has a sweet voice
and while her selection of songs pleased
the better class of the audience. some
thing with more life in the words and
a swing to the measure would have ena-
bled her to turn the Kisses of the gallery
to cheers. ...
Miss Pearl Andrews repeated some of
her limitations popular last week with
some new ones. Miss Andrews is exceed
ingly good in her imitation as to move
ment and gesture, but is little weak in
vocal expression. For instance, her imi-
fairly good as to walk and gesture, but
the pronunciation was no more like Ker-
nell's than -. Her imitation of the late
Annie Plxlev in her song, The Whistlng
Coon, was very good, as was her Carmen
cita.
Hines and Remington appeared in new
sketch, Our Railroad Roaider, which no
matter what the merit may have been,
was not we'll received.
ZanZic init oduced his legerdemain and
afforded brief entertainment, the feature
of which was the performance of many of
the best tricks done by Guital. followed
by an exposure as to the methods by
which the tricks were executed. Taken
as a whole the program is fairly strong
one.