The San Francisco call., 1896-11-15

pretty dctAiS III 'heaplng the Harvest"
IMAM the tery, untamed eloquence of
Beatrice Lieb as e revengeful mother
This lady is wasting her talents on the
desert air when she bestows them on
drawlng-room comedy. She should as
cend the rostrum and declaim "Curfew
Shall Not Ring Tonight" or THE Dream
OF Eugene Aram." a melodrama might
perchance, be found of sufficient strength
to afford an outlet for her energy, but
cannot think of one decIamatory enough
TO fiji the bill. Beatrice Lieb is a comely
young woman and dresses beautifully
withal, but when she turns herself loose
like the lady IN Nicholas Nickleby" who
let down her back hair and reclted "The
Blood Drinkers Funerai"-the exhibition
is enough to make the bravest quail. No
wonder the future baronet, her husband.
fed from his duties. The only surprise
was that he had fortitude to support Miss
Lieb's oratory for five long years.
Every time I see May Buckley at the
Alcazar confirms my impression that
she is an exceptionally gifted young
actress, on the threshold of a bright
career. Not only is this little maiden of
20 simple, unaffected and winning, but
she possesses the rare power of conveying
her emotions to the audience so naturally
that you would VOW she was not acting at
all. 1t looks very easy to be utterly un-
conventional on the stage, but if you care
fully note and mentally digest the con.
duct of the rank and file of PLAYERS YOU
will realize that it is By no means so easy
as 1t looks.
nd Ia aoft ho
profession fret and fume and pace I'D and
down the stage like Gagged animals in
geological garden. If they sit down on a
chair or sofa they bounce up immedi-
ately, as If they had accidentally depos-
tied themselves on a red-hot stove, and
they do not seem 10 know peace of mind
or body either sitting, standing or walk
ing Some actors, with malice afore-
thought, cultivate this business and call
1t spirited action, and truth compels me
to say that many patrons of the drama
admire perpetual motion. Perhaps Miss
Buckley's simplicity appeals strongly to
me because l happen to be an ardent ad-
mirer OF the French and Italian schools
which have given US Constant Coouelin,
Duse and Noveli- / worshiped at Duse's
shrine before she was discovered in Amer.
lea. a superlative artist she is who can.
and does, convey every shade of feeling
and emotion of which the human heart is
capable without o'erstepping the modesty
OF nature or violating even the smallest
conventionality of the life she portrays. 1t
is not my intention to compare Miss Buck
ley to Duse, but the touch of raturalness
In her acting shows that she, too, has
gleam OF the truth which iIlumines the
great tragedienne.
May Buckley is not the only clever
player. in the Alcazar Company. SuIli-
van and several of its members are doing
excellent work. If the present pressure
OF enterprise is kept up there is no know
ing what heights may not be attained by
the little theater that was once said to be
under the ban of hoodoo.
want to suggest to the lady suffragists
means of getting the bulge on those
men who say that only the hand that
wields the sword should WELD the ballot.
During the next campaign let them get a
good assortment of heroines of melodrama
and sprinkle them judiciously about
the State for electioneering purposes, to
tell the voters what woman has dared and
done in the cause of right against might
Ii the men who believe that pelligerency
and voting go hand in hand are true to
their principles they will be led to the
polls to vote solid for suffrage like sheep
led to the slaughter.
Not able to fghtl why those heroines
would soon prove that they had dared
more, aye! and achieved more, than
Alexander the Great, julius Cesar and
Napoleon |, ell rolled into one. Look
what girls were doing at the Grand Opera
house and the California Theater last
weeki Does history record that Alexander