The San Francisco call., 1896-04-21
At The CITY PLAYH0USES
Richard Mansfeld's Brilliant Hit
in "Rodion" at the
Baldwin.
REED At THE CALIFORNIA.
Mrs, Hoyte'S Debut at tbe A1cazar
REED AT THE CALIFORNIA.
Mrs. Hoyte's Debut at the Alcazar.
New Attractions at Other
Houses.

Bells has anything SO weird and haunt
ing been seen at local theater as 1.-The
Story of Rodion the Student" which
Richard Mansfield prodnced for the first
time in San Francisco at the Baldwin
Theater last night.
AS play "Rodion" is less powerful in
construction than "The Bells" for in the
earlier acts it requires a stretch of the i'm
agination to invest the murderer with
motive for his crime. Because l was
mad at the injustice about me"
may be sufficient motive in Russia to
make dreamer on social questions take
the life of a heartless usnrer, because
there are injustice and oppression enough
on all hands to goad on one who broods
social wrongs, to think that blow back at
one of the oppressors is almost an act of
justice. 1t is hard, however, for an Amer
lean audience to sympathize with such
frame of mind.
But if "Rodon" is not so strong and
compact as THE Bells" of which it
strongly smacks, it is nevertheless a play
with powerful dramatic scenes and it is
built round a story of absorbing interest.
AS piece of characterization Manstields
Rodion IS. superior to Irving's Matthias.
1t is as intense and weird, as haunting in
its realistic horror and remorse and it is
devoid of those touches of stilted stagi-
ness which Irving's voice and gait in
t1ict upon him, in spite of himself.
Rodion is a Russian student, a brilliant
dreamer, whose high-strung nervous tenn
permanent has been accumulated by over
| study and want. He is brought in contact
with horrible case of desittution and he
| loves the victim of it, Sonia, young girl
whose honor has been sold to supply her
| parents with bread. Infamed by his
theories and maddened by the injustice
| done to Sonia, Rodion conceives the idea
| that 1t would be no crime to rid the world
| of Ivanhoff, the usurer, who was employed
by rich patron TO grind Sonia's parents
| to poverty and infamy-
On his way to pawn ring at Ivan
hoff's, Rodion finds an ak lying by the
| steps, and as he hides in q doorway he
overhears Sonia pleading with the usurer
! for plttance on a gold cross that was her
dead mothers, in order that she may live
| honestly and have bread for her sisters
| till she can earn a living by her needle.
| The usurer mocks her, and tempts her to
return to her old life by offering her Jew
els but she rushes from him sobbing, and
| Rodion forgets that five minutes before he
! lad prayed, LEAD US not into tempta-
| ton" He sinks from the doorway, knocks
| at the usurer's door and murders him.
| The rest of the play is taken up with
the students horror and remorse-his hor-
ror at the fear of discovery and his re-
morse that an innocent man is accused
| He confesses at last to Sonia and the cur
tain falls on his suicide.
| Mansfield does not merely portray this
| role of the wierd nervous dreamer, throug-
out the whole play he lives and moves,
and has his being, not as Mansfield,
! the player, but as Rodion, the stu
TO have changed from those of Beau Brum-
mell's. Rodiops features are sharp, hag-
| gard and angular, his eyes have the cold
! mystic look of the man who dreams and
| bruods too much and his motions are 1.-the
and youthful.
thought and the crime before the motives
are fully set before one. After the mur-
der, when Rodion comes to Sonia's
room, gloomy and distracted, the
audience is made to understand
for the first time that he loves her, and
| that it maddens him to see her stitching
| her thin fingers to the bone when little,
very little money, would save her, In
half-shrinking way he gives her bank
note that he has taken from the dead
usuer, and as the girls head falls on the
table, in sob of thankfulness at the
| sight of the money, he stretches out hls
hands to caress her blonde head, and then
draws them back and wrings them with
horror, remembering suddenly that they
are stained with blood.
| But it Is in the scene entitled ''The
! Devils Hour that the audience thrill
most, and that Mansfield rises to the
greatest height of his power. The remorse
and the terror of detection are growing
upon him, he is suspicious even Of his own
| mother, and when a detective comes to
sound him he forces himself to answer the
questions coldiy and automatically,
| till his prudence is carried away
in gust of passion and de-
| spair, but even at that supreme
moment Mansfield never "o'ersteps the
modesty of nature" he is not acting in
the common acceptation of the term, he
is as true to the part as if he were living
! it. The act ends with a piece of panto-
Ilime-Rodion left alone goes over the
! scene of the murder-the usuer's cuckoo
| clock strikes, the student prays not to
| be led into temptation and as he does so
| feels the ak again in his hands and strikes.
1t was marvellous piece of character
| ization.
| The suicide scene is the only one open
| to criticism. Rodion was too slow in
| bringing out his dagger. too slow in strik-
| ing and the onlookers did not seek to stop
| him, but that was the one blemish in an
| otherwise perfect performance. As for
the supporting company it was excellent.
| Miss Beatrice, Cameron as Sonia was
second only to Rodion. She was natural,
| convincing and pathetic without ever
OVERRIDING the pathos. The other roles
were all secondary, but they were all
careful and artistic studies.
At the California