Birmingham age-herald., 1895-03-02


 atrical season in Birmingham was on the wane. Iris true the Lenten season is on. and this has considerable bearing upon the attendance at the play house, but it yet remains to be seen if this season of 'holy observances" will prove an entire damper. During the coming week the opera house management will offer two performances which the patrons of the play will no doubt hail with pleasure and greet in the olden time style, viz: with full houses.
 "sHORE ACREs.' '
 The performances for Monday afternoon and evening is drama of purely Amer- can type from the pen of the gifted play wright, Herne. Ia dwelling upon the vir- tues of this drama the New York Sun, paper " bich has a critic whose reputation is established, has the following to say:
 ''Shore Acres,' four-act play by James A. Herne, WAS produced at the Filth Avenue last night and scored an unques- tonable success. Whether this play will prove very popular here remains to be seen. OfliIs' artistic worth tbere can be-uo two opinions. IL was a night of triumph for MT. Herne.
 Tho story of s'Shore Acres' can be told in q nutshell. Uncle Nat's brother incurs the building mania and wants to sell Shore Acres for building lots. Helen, his daugh- ter, loves a freethinker, and as her father OpQDSeS D6F DlHTrtdSey ODtlt ANab tspo thep1 10 run away. They hide themselves in t fishing smack, the Lydia Ann, and start for another port. Her father. who keeps the lighthouse on the point, hears of their escape, and, finding that sc cmetbing is wrong with the light, is about to let it goout in order that the Lydia Ann. as she passes the lighthouse, may be wrecked upon the rocks. Uncle Nat comes to the rescue. There is desperate fight between the brothers. and the light gleams out just I&l.. t<x tt,n rocks. E
 Fifteen months later, on Chistmas Eve, just when the building scheme has all goue to smash, the young couple return with $l500 and baby. The farm is saved, the girl is forgiven, all ends well.
 Here is a story as trite and threadbare as the hills themselves. And yet, as pre- sented, it Is almost new. IL ia the scraps of hy- play, the touches of human nature, which raises :Shore Acres'' out of the rut.
 The character of the mother who sna,ches inc novel away from her boy only to sit down and gloat over 1t herself; the boy, young Nat, who in the last act gives his sister boyish hug of welcome, theu in- stantly protrudes the fact of his long trousers upon her attention; Uncle Nat's most realistic washing of the face of little Mandy. are mere artistic details, perhaps, but in this case they make the play. For four minutes not 6 word Is spoken. It is Christmas Eve; the stockings are hung; all Ln0 OtneT CuaFacGeTS nave Boue JO Oeu.
 Uncle Nat stands in the, farmhouse kitchen alone. h his hands he holds his candle ready lighted. He locks the door, closes the blinds, and as he tip-toes about the room in his heavy boots the thoughts that fit through his mind are read as easily by the audience as though they were written in a child's primer. Just as Uncle Nat reaches the top of the staircase the curtain falls. It is remarkable bit of pantomime, as clever in its way as the IL Acreso should be seen.
 sALVINI.
 Theater-goers in general are anticipating with pleasurable interest the appearance on Wednesday night of the well. known actor, Alexander Salvini, an actor who has won fame more rapidly and at an earlier age than any one in the memory Of the oldest patron of the drama. Given Dumas romance and Salvini as it's hero the result should gladden. the box office heart. Dumas has surrounded his hero with the glamour of the seventeenth century romance. He was registering descendant of an impov- erished but valorous house. Daring, dash ing, skilled in all manner Of soldicrly ac- complish ments, honorable as French honor goes and intrepid like the breath of the times with wit and blade audaciously alert his good sword, "Bob, ' his friend, stood him firm on ali extremity and was more faithful to him than all besides.
 Ou6 uOt6 DOt ItdllLS buc oCdutJ Ol no Three Guardsmen' until it is seen in ac- tion. Dramatized, "The Three Guards meun is action intensified. Not gap re- mains unfilled, not word unsuited to the motive and the result. The scene is laid in the French court at time when kings were slaves to popes, when women were the merchandise of power, when treason crawled before him who paid it's service highest, when honor was a thing of name to flash in the gleam of rapier and be !. anlt cf 1AaIu trht was right and infamy owned both.
 In this latter day, when war Is not matter of despot's whim, when a sub. ject's head is his own, provided he respects his fellows, this page of chivalry comes as a moral lesson and an amusing satire. By tho touch of Dumas' genius it becomes as wine to the blood, since 1t Is life, long bottled in the f1agons of history. Nor will any one look patronizingly upon that age, feeling secret pity for the crudity that did the best within it's power.
 The drama covers one of the most inter- esting periods of French history, although it sacrificed truth to poetry and denou- ment. It is an illustration of ecclesiastical character and methods, as well as rebuke to Louis XIII, the isnoble consort of Aus trian Anne. salvIni plays the dashing guardsman with the impetuosity of the born cavalier. The role Is one in which rapidity of incident limits artistic opporA tunity, but what might be made rude, un. by Salvini into sprightly audacity and courtly courage, that can challenge three men to mortal combat in as many minutes and jest with them in the friend Hest sinI cerity with the next breath. The play ib so full of life that were Salvini other tban what he is he would not be an ideal gaards- man.
 Considerable stress is laid on the scenic surroundings with which the play will be presented, for 1t has been agreed by Man. ager Wilkison to bring everything here com. p1ete in the way of scenic effects add acces. sories that are seen in the metropolitan production of the play.