The herald., 1898-09-20
; NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
AT THE THEATER

. AT THE THEATER 3 3
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LOS ANGELES.-The Frawley conpa-
ny's season may be said to have really
opened last night, when a large audience
gathered and witnessed the performance
of play that was really worthy of the
talented people who presented 1t. The
puerilities of the past week may be for
given and forgotten in view Of the enjoy
ment afforded in 1.-THE Last Word" This
is a society comedy adapted from the Ger
man for Augustin Daily and originally pro-
duced for the purpose Of giving Ada Re
han brilliant opportunity as the eccen-
trio Russian baroness around whom all
the other characters are made to revolve
as satellites to her planetary splendor.
The plot has already been detailed in
these columns in the rather prolix and
confused style common to the enteipr s.
ing press agent. In brief, 1t appears that
the baroness and her brother Boris U.ewis
Payne) are residing in Washington, wher :
Boris falls in love with and is accepted by
the "Secretary's" daughter. The young
mans rival is Baron Stuyve, who causes
him to come under the suspicion Of the
Russian secret police and to be ordered
from the country. The Secretary having
strict notions of duty, declines to interfere,
orders his daughter to marry Baron
Stuyve and turns her out Of the house or,
her refusal to comply with his will. The
secretary's son takes his sisters part and
finally through the intervention of the
baroness the Secretary is made to reient.
the Russian young man gets his American
bride, the baroness accepts the Secretary {
son, the Juvenile man pairs off with the In
genue. all group at the footlights; the ba-
ronness speaks an epilogue in the good old
fashioned style and everybody Is made
happy.
In spite of the conventional lines or
which the play Is built 1t contains some
good epigrams and some interesting situa
tions. The baroness naturally has the
most to say, as we'll as to do. She has the
strong scene in each Of the first three acts,
the final act being but padding to make
the story round out smoothly.
Miss Blanche Bates as the baccness
aforesaid was warmly received, this being
her first appearance during this engage
ment. She has been persistently adver-
t,sed as being LOANED" or LEASED for
this occasion, but she showed no signs of
It, nor ia 1t evident why that fact should
interest the public. At any rate she
played her part with all the animati IN, ths.
vivacity and the grace 1t demanded She
was full of the wiles of a consummate CO.
quette and showed that she could be as
shrewish as Shakespeare's Katherine her
self Her lesson on the art Of understand
ing women given to the priggish young
Rutherell was excellent but her best scene
was in the second act where she excites the
same young man to take his sisters part
There she showed an amount OF fire and
energy that captured the house ana Sc
cured a number of curtain calls. Miss
Bates Is so good an actress that perhaps
a couple Of hints may be pardoned She
should discard two things. The first Is her
accent, which is no accent at all, but SIM
ply a cultural roll Of the letter "r;" and in
the next place, but more important. she
should not wear red hair, for the best of
all reasons, that 1t is extremely unbocom-
ing, particularly in the act in whlcn she
wears black and red Japanese robe
Miss Campbell was extremely interest
ing as the rebellious daughter Of the stern
Secretary, and the little ingenue who al
ways finds a place in these plays was
charmingly and iunaffectedly personatel
by Miss Welles. Rather too much promi-
nence Is given to the young man with tie
gummed hair who plays the part Of her
lover, and the many "fat" lines thai fail
to his part appear to indicate that Man
ager Frawley will play 1t when the com
pany returns to San Francisco Mr.. Hick-
man did very we'll with 1t last night. Mr.
Bell was a little out of his element as the
"bookworm" in the earlier part of tae
play, but when he was reused and begau
making love he did so with the vigor and
address showing long stage experience.
Mr.. Keefe as the Secretary was picto-
rally an excellent representative of the
character, but exceedingly weak in its
personation, his voice lacking the firmness
and decision that belong to the exercise Of
undisputed authority.
The best character bit was that of Theo-
dore Roberts as the old professor Of music.
the brother of the great Secretary and his
humble admirer. No better scene was in
the play than the one in which in simple
language he tells Of his career and how
he followed out his taste for music to the
loss of fortune that awaited him If lie had
followed his fathers desires. He even
succeeds in convincing the worldly b,:-
roness that he has found the true key of
happiness" The dellcacy of feeling ard
sureness of touch exhibited in this char
acter elevate the whole play.
AS this was the first time that the Fraw-
ley company had presented this piece it
was not to be wondered at that there was
an occasional hesitation in the -line,, but
on the whole it went with great smooth
ness. The costuming was elegant and the
stage appointments rich and in good taste
with the exception of displaying the max
er's name on a sign board in big LETT .rs on
the end of grand piano, a vulgarism tina :
could not have been permitted in the home
of Washington bureaucrat whe'e t!e
scene is supposed to take place.
1.-The Last Word" will be repeated to
night.
o O O
ORPHEUM-The usual overflowing Mon
day night audience greeted the new bill at
the Orpheum and gave every evidence Of
It's entire satisfaction.
OF the hold-overs, Sadi (surnamed the