The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-06-02
At THE CITY THEATERS,
The Frawleys' Reception Ada
Rehan as Viola in
Twelfth Night"
A Cool Bill of Comedy at the Or
pheum-" The Soudan" at
Morosco'S.

The Columbia Theater was filled to its
doors last night to welcome back the
Frawley Company. At the end of the
third act of the play there were several
curta meals and Daniel Frawley constru-
ing the applause into a demand for
speech appeared before the curtain and
stated how heartily he and his troupe APP
preciated the warm welcome. He re-
GREETED that the cast had not made it pos
sible to put more old members OF the COM
pany into the piece, but accepted tho well
come in their name. Frawley concluded
by stating that he had just engaged Wilton
Lackaye.
1t was true that there were not many old
members of the troupe in the cast last
night; the play rather served to introduce
the new members to the public. 1t was
THE Two Escutcheons," a comedy
ada pted from the German of Blumenthal
and Kadelsburg by Sydney Resented, and
it afforded good opportunities to several
of the new people, particularly to some OF
the men, In Harry Carson Clarke the
company has secured an excellent char
acter actor. Frank Worthing played a
lovers part with good deal OF cleverness
ana Tyrone Power was good as the heavy
father.
Maxine Elliott's beauty has not been
exaggerated. she would be picked out from
among a bevy of professional beauties for
her handsome face and form, but there is
not the least fear that she will eclipse Ada
Rehan as an actress but Miss Elliott is
not lacking in histrionic abilities; she
played the part of young American
widow dashingly and with good deal OF
fun and savoir faire. There was absolute
ly no suggestion of tenderness or emotional
powers, but her part called for very little
| of that sort of sentiment. In the love
scenes she was attractive and magnetic
| but to compare tnis handsome young
| woman, as an actress, to Ada Rehan, as did
many enthusiasts last evening, is absurd
| Compared to such a standard her acting
would seem spasmodic and her powers of
| y-play nil.
| The play, "The Two Escutcheons," is a
case of too much father-in-law. There
were two of them, a Chicago pork-packer
and an aristocratic unconsclously comic
German Baron, who lived only TO gloat
over his ancestors and to spurn self-made
| men. The snobbiShness OF the Baron FAR
exceeded in vugarity any of the solecisms
committed by the pork packer, and most
! of the scenes between them were broad
| farce comedy though IL is possible that
| the authors did not intend them to be
viewed in that light. The Baron refuses
| TO condOne the Chicago business on &C
count ofits magnitude. "A sausage is a
sausage, magnify it as you will, he cries
in despairlng agony at the idea OF his son $
father-in-law being a butcher" for q
butcher he insists on calling the pork
| packer.
Needless to say these fathers-in-law rem
der the young people intensely misera BILE,
but everything ends happily after scene
III which almost all the dramatis persona
| resolve on flight to escape the friction
| around them and arrange TO go by the same
| midnight train
AS the pork packer Harry Carson Clarke wa:
| one OF the features or the production, ms
| makeup and aching both being excellent
| Frank Worthing as an impecunious young
German officer in search of Anne rican heir
ess was also sprighIly and made love to Max
ime Elliott we'll. Tyrone Power did wonder
in trying 10 convince the audience that In
Baron was gentleman.
Daniel Frawley was himself as Rudolph hi
son. Whatever part he acts Mr.. Frawle
always is himself. Gertrude Elliott acted tn
part OF the pork-Packer's daughter prettily
| Nslss Phosa McAllister was sympathetic as tn
| Baroness. The minor parts were well suS
tanned and the play went easily and smoothly
The scene of THE Two Escutcheons" is LAT
in Germany, but 1t might be anywhere, 10
there is no local coloring The plot in spit
| OF its tiimsiness, is not uninteresting and tn
dialogue is bright and sparkling.