The herald., 1897-10-07
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LOS ANGELES THEATER-The frs

Crane, the celebrated comedian, was
liorored by fine attendance last night;
the house was comfortably filled in the
lower portion, while there was fair
representation in the upper tiers.
The piece was "a Virginia Courtship"
written and compiled by a gentleman
whose name is of no particular conse-
to be heard of again after Mr.. Crane is
through with it.
According to the program the piece Is
"a comedy illustrating the manners and
part of the century" According to the
action it might as well illustrate the
English period from which most of It's
characters have been borrowed. There
is othing distinctively characteristic
Of the soil from beginning to end, save
the Introduction of one of two colore q.
gentlemen, a reference to slaves, and n
mention of the code of honor, to when
list might be added an unnecessary pro-
fusion of dams, "by gods" and good
gods" which may have been thrown in
to give local color.
The author has evidently been dill
gent student of English comedy. H4
gives us Lady Gay Spanker. with her
description of the chase, and as that is
a telling hit, he makes her repeat it with
variations in the next act He adopts
Joseph Surface from the "School for
Scandal" and makes him the adopted
son of Major Fairfax. We have in ad-
dition bits from London Assurance"
"The Love Chase" ''The Rivals" and
even a scene from "Our Boys" With
such a wealth of material the author
has suffered an indigestion in his mental
processes, caused by the richness of the
pabulum which he vainly tried to as
simulate.
Instead of a simple, direct, well-told
story, there is an attempt at mystery.
which is bunglingly depicted, and never
satisfactorily cleared up. A stage mys-
terry should always be made clear to an
audience. which then derives it's enjoy
ment by watching the perplexities of
the personages in the play. In this Vir-
ginia pot pourri the audience is as much
puzzled as some Of the characters ara
supposed to be, and the ragged ends of
the attempt at plot never get straight
ened out. All we see is that Joseph Sur
tace, instead of quitting the stage upon
his utterance of moral aphorism, has
his head bumped on the floor four times
for presuming to kiss lady without her
consent, and that he then disappears,
scowling "R."
Then there is funny duel scene, in
which Mr.. Crane tries to combine the
character of Bob Acres, minus the cow
ardice, with that of Virginian gentle
man, and nearly expires in the vain eff
fort to be funny and dignfied in the
same moment.
Two points Of observation stand out
pre-eminently in this drama as given
last night: The first is the brilliancy of
Miss Annie Irish, and the second is the
inadequacy of Mr.. Crane for the charac-
ter he assumes.
To take the last point first, 1t is evil
dent to those acquainted with Mr..
Cranes career that he has earned his
reputation as comedian upon lines so
entirely differing from the character of
Major Fairfax, that he might almost
as well expect to succeed as Hamlet as
to gain laurels in this new departure
Granted. that as ap actor of long ex-
perience and familiarity with the stage
and possessing intellectual gifts, he
would act this or any other part with
an intelligent purpose, yet when he ven
lures beyond his limitations he has to
take his chances of failure.
The picture of the major as suggested
by the play calls for dignified impress
siveness, courtly demearor which will
appear to be natural, and not assumed
for the purpose of raising a laugh. The
courage of the man in settling all dis
putes by means of the duello is a part
of his being; it is his creed and an in
flexible rule of conduct in his life, i'm
parting a certain austere dignity to his
bearing and extorting admiration and
respect.
But, as pictured by Mr. Crane, the
major appears first, last and all the
time anxious to excite the risibilities of
the audience. That done. the piece can
take care of itself. He has no refine
ment of manner and his attempts at
courtliness are clumsy in the extreme.
In short, there is nothing convincing in
his performance. no atmosphere of Vir
ginia, or of colonial times One could
imagine his own Dromio playing the
burlesque of it.
The shortcomings of the plot and the
misfit performance of Mr. Crane are,
however, more than compensated for
by the radiance shed upon the scene
whenever Miss Annie Irish makes her
appearance. Truth to tell, without her
joyous laugh, her frank. winning ways
and her charming appearance the play
would be a mighty dull affair. She
wears a successon of beautiful cos
tunes which would require the pen of
a fashion writer to describe, but which
are alone worth going to see. These,
however, are but decorative incidents
in her delightful, breezy portraiture of
the fascinating widow, Madame Con-
stance Robert. Miss Irish, in addition
TO a captivating appearance, has fine
intelligent power of discrimina tion in
portraying character and cultivated
method of delivery which bears the i'm
press of taste and refinement.
Miss Percy Haswell acted the part of
the young lady in the case very prettily,
and looked charming enough to be the
daughter of her mamma. The maid,
Marie, a compare lively unimportart
character, was played by Miss Louise
Closer in way that made 1t more
noticeable than such parts usually are.
The young lady evidently has ability and
probably genuine talent for the stage.
Boyd Putnam played his Joseph Sur
face character, ungrateful part as 1t
was, extremely well, and Walter Hale,
barring his habit of coming on the stage
like tornado, made capital lover Mr.
tI,rS