The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-12-26

N@~- 10 NI4NClS nave maze OF the pest
Of melodramatic material. A hundred
strong, stirring plays should have come
out of the American war. We have
none that I know of, unless it be Ala
bama," a local" play, that hinges but
slightly on the rebellion. Think of the
heroism, patriotism, sentiment, sacri-
flee and spectacle that could have been
embodied in an American war play by
such melodramatic artist as, say,
SardOu, Think of the psychology of
war. the analysis of prejudice, passion
and purpose; the warm, human drama,
r. grim, humor-lt, tragic and beautiful,
that Bret Harte, had he been "a dra-
matist, could have got from such pre-
ciOus stuff. AS William Archer said in
reviewing Augustus Thomas Ala
bama": 1T possessed genuine eIe-
ments of heroism. 1t was a war of free
men, not of automatic; of ideals. not of
personal ambitions or race hatreds."
-s And yet as far as the stage is con-
cerned we might as we'll have had no
war.
OF course, I have not seen Secret
Service" which is said to be the real
thing, but have seen Bronson How
80 "a - -A-AAAAe'4A No41cl I'll OIllO VI TIE dlG
unpleasantness and Messrs. Belasco
4 and Fyles' almost equally remunera-
NtlVe tintype of our misunderstanding
with the noble dirty red man.
1t seemed to me as I sat last week
amid the thunder of the captains and
The colonies and the Heutenants of
Shenandoah" and The Girl 1 Left Be
hind Me" that Charles Hoyt has not
p d7,r T. ,-,F1
Mr.. Hoyt to expose those Iaic play
actors. the citizens and soldiers. but he
can deal equally good comic reproach
in the camp Of the "perfesh." The
great American battledrama offers sub
ject for satire so easy, obvious and
good and of such long standing that no
dramatic humorist but Mr.. Hoyt is ex-
pected TO discover its possibilities
:. There have been transitory burlesques
of the war plays, but never anything
vital, anything that regarded them as
a national institution and held them
up TO the healthy ridicule of a laugh
ter-lOving nation.
1t may be that Mr.. Hoyt, who is
student of life rather than of the stage
=. never has seen any of the American
J. war dramas; or it may be that he has
making them any funnier than they
are, fresh Cor stale) from the pens of
=: Bronson Howard, David Belasco,
Franklin F'yles and William Gillette.
Unfortunately the humor of this lat
ter view is not universal. MI How
ard. Mr.. Belasco, Mr.. Fyles and Mr..
Gillette are accepted by most people,
even by those who have grown tired of
their plays. as serious, capable melo-
dramatists. I have yet to see Mr.. Gill
letLe's Secret Service or. Mr.. Fyles'
"Cumberland 81, but the other mill
@tary masterpieces are unparalleled
&tnOney makers, I know. am as en-
& lhusiastic about the pleasures of play
Ngoing as any one. The drama nova
days is not much of a strain on the in
teligence. I think I can enjoy any
thing that is acted in fair proportion
to whatever it is worth; but I have yet
to see a war play that is not a bad
play, by all the cannOns swords and
muskets of the business There is
something SNUG, cocksure, about this
type Of drama, which so annOys
that 7 lose the mood for being
entertained even by its uncon-
scious conicality. That is why
would glee TO see Mr.. Hoyt take the
matter in hand. All war plays look
alike TO me; l am sure they would Cor
dO1 look alike TO Mr.. HoyJ. He could
seize upon the single motive and. the
several rude points Of them and set
forth a caricature that might so please
the people that the battledramatists
would be provoked to an entirely diff
ferent and perhaps partially sane
treatment of their craft Having no
false delicacy, or, for that matter, any
other kind worth speaking of, and but
little distinction, Mr.. Hoyt is not a very
subtle satirist; but along the lines
specified he is the best we have He
has the newspaper mind, the nose for
news, the fingers for taking the pulse
Of the hour; and although vulgar, he is
p. seldom vulgar without being funny.
The Frawley company is playing in
Shenandoah" at the California, and
the stock company al the Alcazar is
playing at "The Girl 1 Left Behind
Me" I don't know which Of the plays
strikes me as being the least admira-
bic, but the acting of the FrawIey
company is easily the better. Miss
Wallace is missed in the impossible in
genue part and the stars and stripes
are lacking in Mr.. Workings dialect,
but the business of the piece is some
better than it was at the Columbia,
and altogether it is a more even per
= Torrance. However, I should not care
+ 10 20 on record as applauding the
FrawIeys for anything more than their
earnest efforts to present a species of
play that to them is forced and IN
congeniaI at the best. What ails the
Alcazar &C. L L. 3. NJ. " is wrong
stage management for one thing, and
several instances Of bad acting for
others. The most of the bad acting is
unavoidable, I suppose, in the circum-
stances Of the company and the large
ness Of the cast; but The wrong stage
MANAGEMENT is a hard blow, coming,
Il 4 cf E.a1af.inlE