The herald., 1898-04-12

cast of characters:
Tom Stanhope. Wright Huntington
Gen. Stanhope... .George Osbourne
Ned MOreland nd................Fr Frank Cooley
Dick Winters. George Nicolson
Harry Winters. Frank Tanning
Dr. Hartman. Frank Bacon
Kate Armitage. .................. .Essle litteh
Isabelle Howard. Juliet crosby
Minerva Winters. s................ Marie howe
Molly Sommers Florida Kingsley
1t Is perhaps worthy of note that this
play, which is properly regarded as
Californian production, was given its first
presentation in Los Angeles in 1891. Charles
Dickson, then a rising young comedian
performed the leading character, and the
piece was given on the 24th and two sue
ceeding nights of September of that year
| at the Grand Opera House in this city, and
| was presented in San Francisco for the
| first time September 2S, 1891. 1t achieved
a success with the public from the start,
| mainly, no doubt. on account of the clever
way in which the mixture of Identities Is
managed. The lover in the expectation of
hoodwinking his father, disguises him
| self with blonde wig and whiskers so as
| to look exactly like a certain pho
| tograph. The picture happens to be
that of one of twin brothers who
| look exactly alike. AS a consequence there
are very soon three men In the farce who
not only look alike, but who dress in ex-
| actly the same way. One of these men
has wife and two children and the other
| two have fianceeS. The men, the women
and the children are all brought in evil
dence. The men, as they rotate In their
appearances on the stage are severally
met by the three successive women and
are hugged and kissed or reproached and
scolded as occasion requires, and always
| with the misunderstanding and general
mix-up that farcical conditions require.
f,.s1 "a, n1v Cff IN frn va-
gantly SO; the piece is a clean one, and
| while it Is wildly absurd in it's plot, the
conclusion is reached that any of the in
cidents might have happened, the impos-
sible part being that they could all have
occurred
"Incog." like most farces, depends for
It's success chiefly upon the acting. The
dialogue may be never so clever. the Sit
uatiohs we'll contrived and each climax
carefully arranged, but after all the actors
have to give life and zest to the whole
thing by the infusion of their personal
magnetism and adroit Characterization.
THE success of last nights performance
may therefore be considered as highly
creditable to the company concerned, for
the piece was in every respect as we'll pre-
sented as it was by the original company.
Added to this, the stage setting is hand
somely furnished, the costumes are pref
ty and the people play into each others
hands with the ease and self-possession
that ought to be, as in this case, the dis
tinguishing mark Of good stock COMPANY
| 1t is only in the third act that the need
for further practice is at all observable,
and here the action dragged little at the
| time when 1t was more that ever necessary
| to keep it at the boiling point. "Incog."
| is a piece which must go with great rapid
| ity, the succession of changes Is so quick
| and productive of so much laughter that
the pace once set must be kept up to the
end. But for a first nights performance
everything went with remarkable smooth
ness. The episode of the quarrel between
| two of the women and the hair-pulling
contest that ensues has often been ad-
versely criticised, but is yet retained. The
generals exhibition of lingerie in the last
act appears to be something new, at least
it was not so given here on the first per-
lformance, and 1t is really unnecessary
now, and might be modified without any
Injury to the farcical nature of the stu-
alton.
| Individually the members of the COM
pany above named did excellent work. to
the extent of bringing out all that was
possible from the humor of the farce. and
the house was evidently immensely
pleased There was a big audience up
| stairs, and fair-sized gathering down
stairs, the idea with many Of the ordin-
ary first-nighters being, apparently, that
any piece would go better after a few
| trials. While this has been the case with
former stock companies here, it is not
nearly so much so with tho people who
compose this company, If the perform
ance last night may be taken as a criterion.
AS an interlude forlorn little 5-year-old
child was put in front of the curtain to
do speciality turn, which was evidently
| intended for "tough girl of the accept
ed stage type. This baby act is said to
| have been accepted with great applause
in San Francisco, but it did not get hand
| last night, except from a portion of the
| gallery. 1t Is so unsu1ted to the theater
with its new surroundings that 1t should
be withdrawn.
| ORPHEUM.-A large and enthusiast
audience greeted the new bill at this house
last evening. Rudinoff Is still the stellar
attraction. He repeated his clever work
| OF last week, and added limitations of
several kinds of birds and Russian night
ingale song, In which he showed himself
to be the possessor of a rich baritone voice;
he also demonstrated the fact that he can
trill in his throat like bird
The first newcomer on the program was
John w. West, who appeared in tramp
makeup and sang a number of highly
diverting parodies, for which he received
many recalls, as he did also for his ex-
cellent wing dancing. He was followed
by an English music hall team, Albert
Athas and Lizzie Collins, whose singing
and dancing "caught on" McCale and
Daniels, the Irish tourists, made decided
hit with their funny, albeit rough, knock
about turn, which ended up with bur-
lesque of the Corbett-FitZsimmons fight.
The last of the new turns was that OF
Montgomery and Stone, a couple of young
J men made up as black-face comedians
who received quite an ovation. Their work
included singing and dancing and very
swell cake-walk, for which they had g0r.
geous coats lined with bright satin.
, The only hold-overs besides Rudnoff, al.
ready mentioned, were John j. Burke an6
Grace Forrest, in new sketch, entitled
"a Hot Scotch" which was very funny
and the Biograph. with some new views
notable among which were those show.
ing the United States divers at work or
the Maine wreck, the United States shiE
Texas and the Spanish warship Vizcaya.
The music was good, especially Luder's
Cavalry Charge" which was received
, with applause.