The San Francisco call., 1896-03-02
cOR|'S PURPOSE PLAYS,
The Noted Anarchist Makes His
Appearance as Actor and
Playwright.
The Applause Could Only BE Subdued
by Turning On a Loud
Brass Band.

Pietro Gori appeared in the new roles of
playwright and actor last night. In both
capacities the audience that filled Apollo
Hall gave him the warmest Endorsement
Indeed, at one point in the entertainment
the applause was so obdurate and pro-
longed that it finally had to be quelled by
turning on loud brass band, which
played until the audience, exhausted in
its efforts to be heard above the din, finally
sought refuge in silence.
1t goes without saying that man OF
Pietro Gori's pronounced views on social
questions would write purpose plays.
The plots of both the dramas he pro-
duced last night pointed moral as we'll
as adorned play. The first sketch, "Thy
Neighbor," was Of the daring, weird order
of which we have heard so much from
Europe and as yet have seen so little. The
second.play, 1.-The First of May" although
modelled according to Ibsen was very po-
etical and was absolutely without any
thing painful in its treatment of social
problems.
The scene of "Thy Neighbor' takes
place in pawnshop. There are some
minor characters, wretched workmen
struggling to keep body and soul together,
who come to pawn their little all, and
harpies who come to prey upon the un-
fortunate, but the chief character was a
woman who comes to pawn locket given
her by former lover in order to pay for
doctor to visit her dying child. The
donor of the locket, a dissipated society
man, happens to be indulging in the in
discretion Of pawnlng valuable watch
and the mother throws herself on his
| mercy for a dole, reminding him of her
wretched life and appealing to him for the
child's life.
There is rather painful, although tell
ing. scene participated in by Gori, who
has married the woman but cannot get
| work to support her. The donor OF the
locket spurns the woman who kneeis to
him, and Gori, infuriated, strikes him and
is arrested, but before giving the blow he
tells his wife it is too late to plead-the
child is dead. "Your locket is false; we
can give you nothing on it, cries the
man at the counter. "Yes. false as your
love-" cries the woman to the donor.
The scene ends when they tell the wife
of her husbands arrest. II am alone, !"
she. cries, then pausing, adds: "No, not
alone; there is the poor dead baby who
awaits my kisses.'
This very modern play was cleyerly
acted by the following ladies and gentle
Bonini, Signorina s. Martinelli, P. Gori,
E. Ruggiero, A. Cane ssa, P. B. Pedretti,
2. Dezzetti.
1.-The First of May" (ll Primo Maggio)
treated no gruesome questions Of poverty.
1t was little drama, more poetical than
probable, that told the story of q young
man oppressed by his inherited wealth,
and ashamed to think that Others should
toll while he sat in idleness. At the insti-
cation of a peasant girl he is about to set
off to seek Utopia described by passing
traveller La della parte donde Sc leve IL
sole) (yonder, toward the land where the
sun rises) The description given of the
land was extremely beautiful and quite
brought down the house.
Death prevented the hero from carry
ing out his intentions and seeking the
land, but every one recognized that its de-
scription tailed with the accounts given
by Signor Gori of the ideal state of society
which he paints in his lectures on anarchy.
A. Bar5eris acted excellently as the
passing traveller who describes Utopia,
though the hero of the evening was Pietro
Gori himself, who proved to be almost as
fine an actor as he is q speaker.