The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-10-19
UNDER THE RED robe"
A Strong Romantic Melodrama
Weakly Acted at the Bald
win Theater.
Too Much Johnson" at the Alcazar
Three 0rpfeum Nov -lties-The
Other Houses.

Robe" that was given at the Baldwin Thea
ter last night is really the adieu of Charles
| Frohman to the playgoers of San Fran
cisco it IL marked by little of the ceremony
that, one would think, should mark the
occasion. Our parting from Mr.. Frohman
will not be such sweet sorrow. And if by
any chance the Baldwin should fail TO be
crowded on every night OF the next two
weeks, as il was crowded last night, the
loss 10 Mr.. Frohmsn will not be great.
His farewell 10 unprelentious and mex
pensive. The company that plays Under
the Red Robe" is unerringly up to our
worst expectation~. 1t is not sensation
ally bad-Mr. Frohman never sends COM
panies that are sensationally bad-but il
is distinctly commonplace and inca pabe
n many OF its members Of giving the
play as 1t should be given.
OF two evils 1t is unquestionably better
to have good play poorly acted han the
other way round. But the bad actor
never seems quite so much at 8 disadvan-
tage as when he is paying in part for
which the author cannot possibly be
blamed.
Last night / was moved to sympat thy
for many of the actors whose names were
under the large proud type that announced
Charles Frohman presents the brilliant
rom ance under the Red Rot be.
These actors were forced by Topographic
cal association TO assume a greatness that
is not theirs.
Apart from the value OF Weyman's
book the play is good one-so good, even,
that it cannot be dowaed by a mediocre
company.
Last night we got no atmosphere at all
in the performance and only the excite
ment of purely meIodramatic incident in
scenes that are ca pable of strong senti-
ment, character and plcturesQueness, and
yet there was enough brought out of the
p ay 10 raise the curtain several times
after each of several acts.
Edward Rose is among the fore lost of
the men who have given the leather
mounted, daredevil drama a place in the
theater He is notably clever at adapta-
ton; he reduces things without making
them choppy and he has a fine sense of
heroics.
He will work up scene so that the
situation itself Gems TO evolve the hero
ism of the character. This is especially
so in the character Of Gil de Bsrault gen.
tleman, gam bier and spy.
OF late years We have seen many viii
lains of the drawing-room meIodrama ex-
allied to the state of herohood, where their
worst deeds seemed to elicit the most
mpathy - where the bac mans
honest love for good wom-
an, favored with rome token of
sacrifice on his part, could atone for a
whole life of double back-nction male
violence. AS Mr.. Rose sees him Gil de
Berault is much the same sort OF man,
only set back in the swashbuckier time Of
the Cardinal. 1t is said of him in quota
ton by the author:
His honor rooted in dishonor stood,
And faith unfaithful kept him false'y true.
The poetry of the bad. the fellows dash,
glitter, grit and wit give him fictitious
value not unlike that of the stage Robin e
hero of the haif-dime novel who imposed
on us in tsnderer years.
could imagine the insinuating pIaus-
Utility of this Gil de Berault last night, in
! spite of the entirely different conception
William Morris took of the part. Mr..
! Morris did not believe Gil should glitter,
did not believe he should dilate with
arrogance did not grant him any
| hinge the issue of the play. Mr.. Morris
acted the part with arch implicitly; he
was only gingerly melod:amatic. He
| had all of the manners of virtue forced
! into false position. Whereas the point
of the play is that Gii's virtues are forced
upon him in spite of worse nature. Mr..
| Morris blonde acting is in direct antithe-
sis to the part. He precludes all perverted
| sympathy.
On the other hand Miss Mary Ham pton
conceives Renee de Cochefont TO be q
young person whose warn, femininity has
! iallen charm to the very maenificence
and nervs which Mr.. Morris Gil is de-
MED.
Hence the pay goes all awry. The
better Miss Hampton acts from her stand
point-wh CHI IS the right one-and the
more completely Mr.. Morris assumes his
virtues the worse is it for the general re-
suit i was sorry for Miss Hampton.
She is a good actress of the Georgia
Cayvan order. Her strong hold
is ELUSIVE womanl ness. She has
richness of the voice and a de-
livery that sometimes says at the wrong
end OF line ant suggests artihciaIly in an
o. Their wise human method OF EXPIRE ssion-
but on the whole she is good.
Beyond Drank McGiynn, who plays the
dumb spy with something like convic-
ton, the Others ct the cast are not to b.
taken seriously. Richelieu is stupen-
dously ruinei by Giles Shine, who I'M
derstand used to be with Stuart Robson
and still retains the squeak, which he
utters in the tempt of the Ghost in
Hamlet"
But the play is good one. and it may
be worth your while to see just how il
survives the acting. ASHTON STEVENS.