The herald., 1897-04-02
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! At THE THERTERS !
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LOS ANGELES THEATER. The re-
turn of Miss Georgia Cayvan after a
by fine audience, which showed Its ap-
probation of a good play and an ex-
cellent company by the closest attention
and by discriminative applause.
Squire Kate" which among other err
rors in the printed program, Is called a
historical drama" is really a very pret-
ty pastoral play in four acts, worked up
to an effective climax in the third act,
and winding up in a rather wobbly and
ineffective manner in the fourth.
The heroine is a young woman Of in
dependent character and great self re-
lance. who is trying to run her little
English farm alone. The demon of debt
brings her discomfort, from which she
is relieved by the bequest of fortune.
Kate is a bonnie lass whose culinary
ability is demonstrated on the stage, and
the marvellous way in which Miss Cay
van constructs genuine pudding can
only be compared in its effect to the real
ism of the roast turkey dinner in
Shore Acres" Kate is secretly in love
with George, the son of an old miser OF
the village. but George, with that con-
trariness that is seen sometimes in real
life, as we'll as upon the stage. wants to
marry Kate's sister. Hetty, whom he
adores. In a perfectly natural way,
brought about by Georges shyness.
Kate is led to imagine that George Is
in love with her, and the scene where
she is disillusioned by watching the
meeting of the lovers in the hayheld,
and where her own feeling of love Is
A. l., - f-t 1,nc 90 oct
in the play. Kate's bitter feeling Is sub
sequently softened through the narrow
escape of her sister from death by poi
son, an event which causes revulsion
of feeling on Kate's part and her con-
sent to her sisters marriage with the
man she had for a short time herself
hated.
The play up to the time of the eli
max goes along in an easy flowing
fashion, the characters introduced are
very we'll played, and the various ac-
cessories to the action are well devised
and add greately to the charm of the
piece which reflects simple country life
of the old English kind. The fourth act
is somewhat in the melodramatic order
and contains an anti-climax which is ap-
parently the result of desperate en-
deavor on the part of the author to get
a satisfactory ending out of a difficult
situation. His heroine being unable to
marry the man she devotedly loves, is
brought to exercise the virtue of self
sacrifice in favor of her little sister, but
it would never do to let the curtain drop
upon a leading lady of seductive per-
sonality, in full health and in the pos
session of winning charms, including an
attractive smile, without providing her
with a possible escape into matrimony
The public demands that virtue shall be
rewarded-with a husband. To comply
with this unwritten law, Mr.. Robert
Buchanan, the author, has introduced
Geoffrey Doone, farm overseer, who Is
mutely in love with Squire Kate, and
who demonstrates that feeling by loung-
ing around most of the time with his
hands in the pockets of a peculiarly
built pair of neither integuments.
AS an overseer, Geoffrey is decidedly
indoleht; as lover he Is stick, and If
his representative, Mr.. Frank Atherley,
does not make particularly strong i'm
preston in the character the author
must be considered largely to blame
He Is not allowed to declare his passion
until nearly the end of the play. and
then the repentant Kate tells him that
there may some day. some far off day.
be CLEAN of hope for him, that she will
cease to be his sister and become his
wife and possible widow.
Mr.. Orrin Johnson made a manly
lover Of George, and he uses his rich
voice in tender passages with great ef-
feet. Mr.. George Woodward made a
strong character sketch of the vindict-
i've, grasping old man who causes all
the trouble, and the subordinate charac-
ters were all well filled in, down even
to the farm servants.
Miss Mary Jerrold, who is, by the BY
descendant of Douglas Jerrold, the
wit of the early Victorian age. was a
charming Hetty, acting the part with a
simplicity and unaffected grace that
must have captivated every one in the
audience.
Miss Cayvan has improved in her art
and imparts to the character she as
sumes a charm that is more easily felt
than described. She always gives the
impression of having a large reserved
force, and in fact, demonstrates its pos
session on the single occasion when she
bursts into the torrent of passion and
invective launched upon the head of her
devoted sister Miss Cayvan Is an artist
whose training and experience, aided
by natural tact and sympatheti feel
ing, would carry her safely through any
and every situation in the average play
illustrating modern life and manners.
1t is also to be recorded that she has
an insight of character that Is a rare
gift enabling her to portray a higher
range of feeling and emotion than is or
dinarily seen in an actress trained in
the so-called society drama school of ex
perience
Backed by such a thoroughly compe-
tent support, the remaining events of
the engagement ought to be particularly
pleasing Tonight will be given an orig
inal comedy entitled Mary Penning-
ton, Spinster."