The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-14
OUT AND ABOUT.

1t is probable that the Friday Morn
ing Club win give a tea during festival
week similar to that which so pleasant
ly inaugurated its season last year
The executive board met yesterday
and voted to recommend a festival tea
to the club which will be called to-
gether Wednesday forenoon in the club
room TO discuss this and other matters
of business.
Cards are out for the wedding of Ar
thur C. Comins of Worcester and Miss
Margaret D. Lake of Rockville, Ct,
Wednesday, Sept. 81 at o'clock in the
evening at the Union Congregational
Church in Rockville. They will be at
home Tuesdays after Dec l at II Ham
mond street.
The nurses at the city hospital give a
reception this evening to the gradual
ing class of nurses.
The Worcester wellesley Club has
been invited by the college to send a
delegate to the installation of the new
president, Oct. 8.
1t is fact worth noticing in con-
nection with the local production of
"Trelawny of the Wells" that this
piece met with more prompt apprecia-
ton in New York, when Daniel Froh-
man opened his regular season at the
Lyceum with it last year, than in Lon
don. Mr.. Pinero's Original comedi-
eta as he calls it, is also notable in
giving fresh evidence of the fact that
Of t1o,
of Shaksperes day, find pleasure in the
stage representation of stage life; that
is to say in the introduction of actors
as characters and of theatrical inter-
ests as elements in the plot In it he
opposes the world of footlights and
makeup to the world Of society in
Cavendish square, contrasting the two
sets, yet depicting without mercy the
Shallow egotism and the vulgarity of
the one, the stiffness, narrowness and
obstinate bigotry of the other
Historically, as well as artistically,
'Trelawny of the Wells is original"
The plot is laid in the early sixties,
about the time when the old artificial
style of Macready and the Kembles
was falling to pieces at the hands Of a
crowd of uninspired imitators and in
terpreters, and when the new school of
realistic acting was about to be found
ed by Tom Robertson. Robertson him
self appears to be typified in Tom
Wrench of the Bagnigge Wells Theatre,
and other actors in the group have been
identified as people more or less well
known on the English stage.
Those who have read 1.-THE Story of
Play" will recall that MaxwelPs early
idea was to open his play with a COM
plimentary dinner to the hero and to
close it with another dinner which
should contrast finely with the first.
just as the hero's downfallen state
should contrast dramatically with the
happy opulence of his first appearance.
Well, Mr. Pinero opens his play with
supper party to celebrate the engage
ment OF Rose with the grandson of the
vice-chancellor; this scene has been
pronounced the best in the play. as
amusing and ingenious as anything in
the whole range of modern comedy.
speaking of "Trelawny of the Wells"
and OF Pinero as playwright, Norman
Hapgood says in The Bookman: "For
Two reasons 1t is easy to have Pinero
wen acted. he is modern, and he is an
actor and stage manager, and writes
plays for tie actor of today as much as
for the contemporary audience. In this
latter respect, he comes into COMPARE
son with the great dranlatists Of the
past Sheridan and Shakspere were
managers, imbued with all the details
OF an actors life. and when they wrote
they remembered every little human
pawn upon the stage 1t Is as easy in
'Trel1wney' to make a hit in a subordi-
nate role as in the leading parts; lust
as Launcelot, Gobbo, Gratiano. Phoebe
LIE Beau, or Adam, give opportunities
for brilliant success. Pinero. like his
great predecessor, takes care of the
actor, Of his entrances, exits, speeches
and position on the stage seldom Ieav-
ing him stranded with the deadness of
furniture, knowing himself how ii feels
TO be victimized. Actors feel these posi-
billties, and will take small parts with
out grumbling In Pinero, as they will in
Shakspere or In Moliere.
The other reason that It is easy to
have Pinero well acted is that. being a
practical stage-manager clever man.
and not poet or prophet, he writes
for actors Of moderate ability. There is
no Immense demand, nothing calling for
real creation. II would be easier to find
several actors to do acceptably any part
In Pinero than to unearth one Bob
Acres, Tony Lumpkin, Tartuffe, or NAL
yolio. not only on account Of the lack