The sun., 1896-10-16
NOTES AT THE THEATRES.
SOME MELODRAMATIC POINTS IN
"7HE CHERRF PICkERS.'

A TIpay Scene UncommOnty Early IN tho
play, aud ~ viiiaIn Who seems to Die
Too Soon-A Joker In u Vaudeville show
a New Comedy, "A shower OF Goid."
The characters In "The Cherry Pickers" are
English or Irish when they are not half caste
or purc.b booded East Indians. In this respect
Il is like all plays with scenes laid in India.
The comic first woman in that country dates
from ThackerAy. In the melodrama now at
the Fourteenth Street Theatre she practically
uonopozes all the humorous lines In the play.
Jennie Sattcree. who speaks them. is the pos
,essor OF n plausible broguo and strong pair of
lungs; 80 nothing that sho Is called upon to
gay fails from any lack OF effectiveness In its
delivery. She has one unusual task. and It
comes toward the close OF the first act. She Is
presented to the audience us the respectable
mother of a young girl. She is engaged to
marry a half.cnste mere hant OF good repute, and
she is at the reception given by the English
Embassy. All these circumstances lead tho
audience to believe that she is q respectable
woman But after n while she Ia heard laugh
ING boisterously of the scene, and her daughter
serencly explains the situation by saying that
her mother has evidently had too much cham
parpe. When the old lady reappears there Is
no doubt of it. She is very drunk, and she stag
gers out OF view with an intoxicated "hurrah"
that is convincing. This inebriety came before
q o'clock and pprplexed the spectators. Stage
drunks. particularly female stage drnnks, are
not due 80 early as rule. They usually take
iiacrat some later stage OF the piece. So the
drunken mother, who Is led away by her young
daughter. delicate ana refined as the comcdy'of
the scene may be. seemed premature ut quar-
ter tuY
Mr.. Arthur has ended every one of his acts in
"Thc Cherry Pickers" with an exciting situ-
alton. " hen the first act closes the herone's
hals.castc lover is on his back. with two British
soldiers clutching his throat, and his rival di-
rccting them to carry him Off to prison. At the
end Of the second act the hero. who has escaped
from the prison in the disguise of an Indian
peddler. is In the home of his sweetheart who
Is al,o beloved BY the wicked British officer.
Just as the woman is about to escape with the
half.caste fugitive the officer arrives. She tells
HIM that the other man is there. but is about to
make an attempt to escape, and that they must
be allowed to 60 in safety-that they must not be
interfcred with. The officer has the soldiers
summoned before he consents to hide himself
behind screen. in order that the escaped pris-
oner may pass through the room. Beht the
Wien the fugitive comes in to siir through the
room he has been told by the girl that
his Is eGan1 morG Ge he
spectators see pair of hands thrown up above
the screen, and The hero cries out that he has
killed his man. The end of the second act is q
bit early for the melodramatic character to die,
SO there is little uncertainty In the minds OF
the spectators. and they are satisfied with their
own acumen when the screen is thrown down
and the wicked officer is seen to be safe and
sound His soldier has received the thrust, and
not enough of it to be fatal. for he RECEIVERS In
the succeed lng act. The officer has another tri-
umph, and again his soldiers lock up the hero
The third act. with its scene In the gun tower
and the rescue after the cannon threatens to
destroy com pe,ely the hero's digestion, has al
ready been described, and the inex pll ca ble de-
lay of the heroine at that critical moment been
duly pondered over. The picturesque costumes
ofthe play lend to II an atmosphere novel in
melndrama. and the uniforms OF the British
soldiers are bright and spick: The out-of-door
.nll M I'D and thax xtAAs nf frSt
act is purely suggestive of the plays locality.
MIR. Arthur and Augustus Pitou have put the
capably the strenuous intS,..skation il needs
1t may be reRrettable that William Harcourt
sion under trying conditions, and that Ralph
Delmore has unQuentionaby lost some of that
lied his acting always until he took two years
of and went into farce RoselIe Knott is
peTament ] t than finish. and a e tf sSat
stands BADLY Dadly In need of of rsadjI;tmept; Miss
!pes heH w pSks eGsgh .s
INDUCED herself in the luxury OF this letter
Sur,ng the w whole Of the play The ability to
rectness must be one of the first needs OF an
actress.
Ezra Kendars monologue is twenty minutes
long at Keith's, but no words are wasted, and
all of them bid for laughter. II any scholar
has compiled q dictionary Of terms, slang and
Otherwise that pass current for two widely diff
lcrtnt meanings. tns performer surely possesses
cory of the work. His attire is ragged his ap-
pearance suggesting Sol Smith Russell In "a
Poor Relation" and he makes fun of his power
ty. Though pennless. he says he isn't going to
u poorhouse. else he'd go to a matinee and then
he steps backward to the carpeted portion of
the stage TO be. as he put II. on velvet. Re-
marS.hE s,nad that spain In laS2 sent ship ship
Cn6a wins her freednm. we'll have to
n hl.p mn nAnt NJ hA mi nj Z h
out which few mono0gues are now complete,
he throws a sop TO each side. but OF these sQuibs
air with which 1t is uttered. is the assertion that
he has three do!lars-two dollars in money and
in Keith's bill sumbt as many squibs this
chap does. but some Of theirs are quotable.
par announced as Bryant and Richmond reads
the head line from it, "A wife misses her hus-
SSma 6T Then ns ne runs MS eyes down the col.
But 1t don't say what she threw at him." His
champion Of patient men is the fellow that can
handie hot lamp chimney and say the Lords
Prayer at the same me. ard he knows that one
OF lis wife. Washington pies is TO be served,
This pnlr'S sketch is one OF shrewish wife and
henvccked husband, aud she urges him to get
early y aHd T. fund d''os on Il the Sidewalk % ene ien
dollar iii. His Tretort is that some one
@ ' "'S ovrr s Isisst Merde i"to Of McBrde and and
Goodrich shows what ridiculous stun will
& 'ss se% sp aooted asTsG1 hs
oyster IN 1t ate the crackers az fast they were
put INTO the bow and when the man finally
made rs II to eat the oyster the Divalve pleaded
Tor It's He because ii was the only oyster
WORKING in the restaurant that day. This en-
tr'ainer says that II the farmers got all lhe
gold lhCy wanted they'd At once buy gold bricks.
Lhen there chance for him TO say quickly.
without warning " Somebody voted the Pop.
OcTatlc ttCkct-who was that MANI The gem
tthi lam liter at this Is proof OF silyer's un-
popularity.
Tic theme of the new comedy. A Shower Of
Cod which was acted at the Irving Place
Theatre last night. is II good one. al Though IL is
not new. rich Russian countess. alienated
Hon her only child. makes the head OF a poor
provincial family her heir and transports the
members to Berlin from a provincial town.
There. with unaccustomcd wealth. their dispo-
t!iI"ns undergo the stage change customary
In such circumstances. They forget old loves
and sumo what they believe to be new
friendships with little rebellion against their
iormer feelings. Ultimately the countess dis
clNrr- that her daughter is not lost TO her and,