The San Francisco call., 1897-02-23
TURKEY DINNER
ON THE STAGE
Bucolic Scenes Applauded
in Shore Acres at
the Baldwin.
Fanny Rice Receives a Warm
Reception at the Colum.
bia Theater.
Saints and Sinners" With Miss Jl.
life at the Alcf Z1r-The
Tivoli's Bill.

"Shore Acres" with the author, James
A. Herne, in the title role. was warmly
received at the Baldwin Theater last
night. The play represents a picture of
rural New England life which abounds in
touches of homelike, everyday existence.
A turkey dinner is eaten on the stage,
with real turkey. which fills the theater
with the odor of cooking, the viands
are prepared before the eyes of the audi
ence and other details of life are presented
with minute fidelity.
Simple and almost commonplace as
most of the action of the play proved to
be, it delighted the auditors, and even the
turkey was warmly applauded. The
reasons for this were no doubt the per-
feet truth to life of "Shore Acres" both in
the characters and the way they were put
on the stage, added to the exquisitely
artistic acting of James A. Herne himself.
The plot of the play is OF the simplest.
1t is the old story of the girl who runs
away from home to marry because her
father wants her to have the wrong man.
After Helen Berry is gone her father re-
pents, and returning on Christmas eve
she is forgiven. The girls uncle plays a
conspicuous part in the elopement. Uncle
| Nat Berry is the good genius of the lovers
and OF every one on the farm, and he is
the hero OF the one meiodTamatic scene in
the play.
Nat and Martin Berry, the brothers who
farm Shore Acres, are also the lighthouse
keepers, and when Martin realizes that his
daughter has eloped and gone to sea with
a young man who has rejected the ortho-
doxy of the neighboIhood he is so scan
dalized that a daughter of his should
marry believer in Darwinianism that he
decides to leave the lighthouse in dark
and lot the hriU on tuh ich ha 1Ouarc
sail go to pieces on the rocks. Uncle Nat
finds ont his design, and there is a strug-
gle In the lighthouse, which ends in Nat
winning the day and Lighting the lamp.
At times ''Shore Acres" recalls men,
ories of 1.-The Old Homestead; at other
times the mind OF the spectator wanders
back involuntariIy to 1.-THE Cricket on the
Hearth" But these resem blances are to
| a great extent superficial The real charm
of "Shore Acres lies in its character
drawing and its local coloring, which are
studied in every detail from life. The
weakness of the play is in its lack OF
drama,ic'action, which makes it drag a
little here and there. 1t is impossible to
say too much in praise of James A.
! Hearne's acting.
One long monologue in the first act, in
which he described why his mother was
! buried beside the sea, was so simply and
| pathetically delivered that many people
| clamored for several minutes to get 4
| speech, when the curtain went down, but
Mr.. Hearne did not respond. All through
| the play he WAS the simple good hearted
| farmer TO the life, character quite as in
teresting, if not quite so vivacious, as DEN
man Tnompson's role in the "Old Home
| stead"
Most of the stars support was good.
Robert Fischer gave an excellent render
ing OF Martin Berry. the stern parent;
James I. Galloway made the most of the
role OF Joel Gates, the grass-widower, who
was given "hand-out" at a turkey dim
ner, and little Gladys Carolius as Mandy
Gates aroused roars OF laughter by the
new and fascinating way in which she de-
| voured pie and celery.
Grace Gayler Clark was natural and
clever as Martin Be-ry's wife and one of
the most successful characters in the play
was Master Alexander Paul the youthful
son of Martin Berry, whose strict ortho-
doxy in matters of Sunday training
added to consuming desire TO wear long
pants, endeared him to tn he audience The
other Berry children acted prettlly. Lucy
Morrow as the Helen Berry might have
improved her part by being less Iackad-
aisical.
The staging of 'Shore Acres" showed
careful and conscientious study in everv
de tail.