The record-union., 1899-06-18


Wednesday, the DIST, 1.-The Turtle" will
be produced at the Clunie Opera-house.
This is the play that SO shocked the
lsensbilities of San Francisco critics
that court injunction was procured
to tame it. 1t was cut to suit and then
pronounced too tame to be interesting,
whereas before it was too untamed 10
be seen without blushing, if we are, 10
believe the San Francisco critics.
Whether it is to be given here in its
unabridged or it's emasculated form we
have not been informed The claim or
the management of the piece. French
farce, is this: "A piquant dish daintily
served, that is what the astute New
York critics said, of that enormously
successful farce, The Turtle when II
was originally produced in New York
City 1t ran for two hundred per-
sformances at the Manhattan Theater,
and the consensus of opinion seemed
to be that it was as brisk and funny an
! entertainment as has been seen in this
country in recent years. the cast was
conceded to be as brilliant a coterie of
artists as had ever before been selected
together, and were all specially selected
they appear. The able and carefully
selected company consists of Isabel
Evesson, Jennie Reiffarth, Ada Deaves,
Marion Ballou, Lillian Coleman, Signor
Perugini, George Holland. Louis Inn
hous, Hudson Liston, Uric B. Collins
and Ross O'Neal."
AT the Clunie Opera-house Friday and
saturday evenings next, Herbert Kelcey
! and Effie Shannon, two famous society
actors, will appear in the new drama,
1.-The Moth and the Flame" This play
the San Francisco press, in the main,
burned up" but according to every
body else without reason. The idea
seems to be in that burg to license al
legged critics to tip tilt their noses at
nearly every thing worthy, and applaud
about all that is weak. 1t is bit
philosophical it is in their estimation
admirable because this presents the
critic as a wise person: if it is natural,
drawn from life. deals with the real,
they are pretty sure to denounce it as
IL unreal and overdrawn, since this pre-
~sents the critic as a person of discern
ment and cultivated judgment. We pre-
fer the opinion of a Los Angeles
journal the Express which having
no axes to grind and not being af-
flicted with the idea that the sun rises
and sets in San Francisco, says of Clyde
Fitch's play:
The plot might be called old, but all
good plots are old, old as the love itself
: which breathes life into them And
on the other hand "The Moth and the
TN -,
1t is more than a play of the day. 1t
is a play of the hour. Even a few min
utes ahead of time for US, SO many
miles from where they make fashions.
Mr.. Fitch has told the old story as it
has never been told before. He has
thrown over its ghastliness a garment
. of good society and the spectator peers
out horribly from the frivolity of two
great social fetes. The contrast is
striking and gives the play wonderful
strength and the three pictures of So
ciety are triumphs of realism in them
selves.
A Nethersole or a Bernhardt might
say of Mr.. Fftch's play, were it offered
to her, Yes, indeed, very pretty and
very witty and very strong. but where
do l come imp which is another way of
saying that there are no narrowing
pitches of passion in it. 1t is primed up
to the muzzle with sorrow, too, but not
the noisy kind.
The stage pictures are beautiful and
realistic beyond description. In the
first there is a fancy dress party with
an amateur vaudeville show, and all the
guests dressed as children. The sec
ond act is a gorgeous full-dress we'd
ding in st. Hubert's Chapel. and the
last act is a room where the friends of
the unhappy girl, whose wedding was
tragically interrupted. are sending
back her wedding presents, piled up by
the bushel. The dialogue is quite as
picturesque and sparkles with good-na-
tured satire. There is not a line that
drags
The wedding scene is one of the
brightest. Waiting in the church pews
before the bridal procession enters,
typical society women talk the thing
over" and they tear the whole business
to shreds. There is q good deal to tear.
Marion Wolton (Effie Shannon) is to
marry the society blackguard, Fletcher
(Herbert Kelcey), in spite Of the warn
ings of her friends.
II 10 HeT pi!y loi ihii lHdl Souiu'S
her judgment, added to the fascination
infused by a man who has dallied with
wickedness and come out with inter-
eeting scars.
You are all against him." she says,
bitterly. Il am afraid that he has been
a little fast: but a past so unusual
with men in these days? Yes, and we
both know men enough who have a
present as WE'LL
Mr.. Kelcey makes a consummate
villain polished, cultured, seeming. to
mean we'll enough, but thoroughly