The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-30
THEATRICALS,

There was a time, few years ago,
when 1t was easy for a company of
transformers recruited at the San
Francisco soup-kitchens and Rescue
Homes to come to Honolulu and fool
the people into the belief that they
were great dramatic artists. We were
simple and pastoral folk then and
but for vague memory of Edwin
Booth. who was here in 1853 on his
way to Australia, we had few standards
by which to judge dramatic art Once
in long time strolling players came
to the old Opera House and perform
ed to a one-night stand. while their
steamer waited; and then some of our
nice young people now and then gave
an oratorio, a jubilee concert or the i'm
proving drama of Ten Nights in a Bar
Room" But of the Thespian art our
ideas were so crude and embryonic that
when one Daley descended on us like
wolf on the fold, in the Arcadian
spring of 1894, We thought that the
traditions of Macready and Forrest had
been revived. All, that Daley season!
How 1t fingers in the air Of today like
a smell of burning fat. Daley himself
had been a leading man in some I'M
kequented cellar playhouse at So per
week and his hespians-in-ordinary
had been glad to "act" for less; but
when they strutted their brief hour on
the Hawaiian stage, Heaven help us but
We looked on with round, admiring
eyes! Who cannot recall the gloved
applause that followed Daley wnen he
appeared as a Cardinal in his red
hannel gown and when May Nannery
came on as Lady Jane in her hand-me
down clothes from lower Kearney
street? Odds-bodikins"-as DALEY
used to say-but he was great and she
was beautiful.
Honolulu play-goers have improved
since then in the matter of dramatic
taste; they have become more discrim-
mating; more like the wary trout and
less like the eager gudgeon. Nat Good
win and the beautiful Maxine Elliot
nave come and gone; we have had our
fraWIey seasons as well as San Fran
cisco; Nance O'Neill and Clay Clement
and Janet Waldorf have done some |
thing to amuse and-teach us. Besides.
since the sugar boom we have been to
the Coast and to New York and even m
Paris. Coquelin and the Divine Sara
are not unknown to some of MS. and
there are those who have seen Rejane
In Sans-Gene and shared the pleasure
OF Rostand in his box when Cvrano do
Bergerac lived and moved in his mimic
world of glory and self-sacrifce
And SO it Is different town for
players than it was-but have the
managers yet found it out? Are thew
quite persuaded that the day has nase-
ed when the stuffed tragedian and tho
rlpsaW soprano can convince us that
they should have our dollars for their
lines? Sometimes we have seemed ,o
doubt it. There were moments when
the Boston Lyrics were here fat s9
admission) that fell suspicion crossed
our simple and yet improving minds. |
1t seemed as if our pastoral reputation
was still the only one the managers
would credit us with owning. The
coon" descended on us and we were
blamed If we did not make each
shadowy appearance the signal for
gala night" But we didn't and that
should have given the managers what.
in their classic phrase they call
"hunch." Did it? Time may tell-but
we begin to fear, while our eyes are |.
blighted by uncanny posturings in bus
kin and our ears split with strident
strokes OF the keen metallic voice in
opera, that the managers have not vet
found us out.
And by way Of conclusion, brethren,
when they do We shall get some good
shows!