The San Francisco call., 1899-05-09
.FROHMAu SENDS
FINE PLAYE Rs IN
A FAIR FARCE
"On and Of" Notable
for the Acting.
GREENE's JAPANESE WIFE
AN AFFECTIoNATE MOTHER-IN-
LAW THE NOVELTY.
''Little Tycoon" at the Grand-Maude
Adams Successful Juliet-open-
ing of the London
Opera.
GREENE'S JAPANESE WIFE
AN AFFECTIONATE MOTHER-IN
LAW THE NOVELTY.

The play is not the thing at the Co
lumbia Theater this week Charles
Frohmans production of the Bisson
farce, of and On" is remarkable only
on account of the excellent actors en-
ployed in it. Not that the farce is bad.
1t is ingeniously constructed, easily if
not glitteringly phrased, and as pru-
dent as any piece can be that deals
lightly with the weights of matrimony.
But its motive is slender and its active
situations few to carry three acts You
do not laugh hilariOusly until the mid
die of the last act, when furlouSly
funny situation is sprung. The rest is
leisurely amusement of the better
French mode, at which you smile often,
ha-ha once in while and applaud
very moderately at the drops of the
curtain. Played by modest company,
say like the one at the Alcazar, ON
and Off would be pilloWed ir the usual
brief and kindly press notices and play
to a week of usual business. Its recep-
ton at the Columbia is different be
cause there it is interpreted by picked
players of a different stamp, who give
to it the smooth, distinguished eXecu-
ton that is next to impossible in the
week to week performances of a stock
company.
Many a day is it since we have had
comic play served up in the polished
fashion that Mr.. FrOhman's players
serve this. The production is graceful,
compact and secure. There was but one
misfortune in last nights cast and that
was in the mother-in-law part, which,
in the illness of its original actress, was
taken at short notice by another
Everything else seemed to run on ball
bearings. In the mems parts, especially
the actors did even more than their
author had provided for them to do.
E. M Holland and Fritz Williams, who
have the plums and hOnors, were i'm
peccable Each of these men is an
artist of quiet pOise and authority who
realizes the value of moderation and
suggestion. Pitted one against the
other, as they were last night, in parts
of about equal strength, where the
word and glance counted rather than
the deed it was worth any ones While
to be among those present. Fritz
Williams has in his acting that quality
of alert ingenious youth that most men
burn behind them as soon as they take
to the stage; and 1t found happy vent
in the part of Alfred Godfray, the real
sleeping car inspector. Mr.. Holland al
WAYS endeavors to present definite
character. His George Godfray, the
spurious car inspector, is positive iden-
tity from the top of his hat down
comic to a degree-never exploiting the
banal tricks of obvious playacting.
AS the first deceived and then re
venged wife of the bogus railroad Of
fetal, Essie Tittel did notably well.
Her acting is charmingly natural and
her presence handsome and quite mag
netic. May Lamberts ''winking girl
is a bit of St. Vitus' dance humor that
is very fetching in it's arch-patholog-
ical way. and Ralph Detmore is briefly
to the good as her enterprising accom-
Mice ASHTON STEVENS.