The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-22
AT THE THEATER.
Blanche Walsh Production a Disap-
pointing One.


pointing One.
The largest and most brilliant audience
of the season saw Miss Blanche Walsh
last night in production of More Than
Queen" Ii is unpleasant to say that the
audience was disappointed. One does not
like to cavil at the performance of so ex-
celent an actress as Miss Walsh, but the
character of the play and the production
fell below expectations.
The story of the play runs over a pc
Rod of fourteen years-from 1895 10 1909.
1t is laid in a prologue and five acts.
While the idea in the main is to show
the beautiful character of Josephine and
her devotion to Napoleon, Bonaparte is
pictured in the best light that history can
place him. His love for Josephine re-
mains until the last and he only divorces
her because his ambition for an heir out
weighs his love.
There is only one part to the play and
that is the character of Josephine The
others are weak Even Bonaparte I'M
less. perhaps, it were portrayed by some
particularly talented actor, does not
amount to much. Miss Walsh won for
her individual efforts unstinted applause
and two curtain calls.
For the rest of the company not much
can be said. Mr.. Humphrey, the lead
ing man, had a severe cold, and was COM
PEELED to give way to his understudy, af-
ter going through a pantomime in the
prologue. Mr.. Harold, who took the role
of Bonaparte, not being regularly cast for
the part, can hardly be criticised.
Miss Walsh wore some beautiful cos
tunes and wore them well. Her jewels,
which are those formerly owned by the
late Fanny Davenport, were exceedingly
handsome. From a point of spectacle The
play was somewhat pleasing. AS play
of any strength it was not.
Miss Marion Convere, leading lady in
the company playing MY Daughter-in-
Law" at the Theater tonight, has num-
Der of friends in Savannah. Before go
ing on the stage, Miss Convere, whose
real name is Marion Convere Jones, was
a popular member of the social set OF
Charlotte, N. C. The story of MY
Daughter-in-Law' is this: Reginald
Mainwaring, a frivolous old gentleman,
who makes his parliamentary life cloak
to cover his peccadilloes, has a son, who
has married a pretty girl, to whom his
mother has taken a violent aversion. The
wish being father to the thought Mrs.
Mainwaring, Sr., is positive that Mrs.
Manwaring, Jr., is no better than she
ought to be, and as she wishes her son
20 marry the Countess Lodoiska, she
watches her for the purpose of verifying
her suspicious, to the end that her son
NAV obtain a divorce and marry the
woman of her choice. Father and mother
and son and daughter-in-law occupy two
flats in the same mansion and great
deal of feeling being bottled up, there
are constantly family jars. Mrs. Main
Waring, Sr., gives dinner party at
which her daughter-in-law appears in
similar dress to hers. This is a signal
for a skirmish on the outskirts of con-
viviality. in which the mother-in-law is
worsted, for her deughterin-law re-
dressed the grievance by retiring to her
own rooms,
The comedy part of this scene lies in
the fact that all the guests, one by one
retire in a whirlwind of excuses to the
fiat below, whittier Mrs. Maiuwaring Jr.,
discovers her husband keeping an appoint
ment with the Countess at the rooms OF
mis- private secretary. Retribution, swift
and sure follows, and Mr.. Mainwaring,
Sr., has TO retire from Parliament and go
with Mrs. Mainwariug, Sr.. to the coun-
try where she may cover her cnagrin
and disappointment by reading her hus-
band appropriate and refreshing lectures
upon the fascination of Irritation.
Tomorrow, matinee and night, "A
Young Wife" will be the play. 1t is d
tale of a waif, associated in her early
life with gamblers, who is brought into
good society and is beloved in her early
life by dishonored son of a New York
capitalist. and later by an adopted son,
who marries her. The dishonored son
robs 0OO0 from his father and murders
him. She finds him in his dying mo-
mente when he whispers his son COM
mitted the deed. The dishonored son is
unknown to her. except as a companion
In her early days, and she thinks 1t her
husband but to shield him does not pro-
test against the web of circumstanstial
evidence against her until all is cleared up
by an old friend from the country.
The author has evidently designed the
NAV to suit all classes, with the first act
i'm a New York mansion, the second in
most realistic presentation of a den some-
where in the slums, and then returning TO
the home of the chief characters Of the
story
Thursday and Friday nights and Fri
day matinee Yales The Evil Eye" will
be presented. The piece. which has
met with the greatest success since It's
Inception has been called by the manage
ment Kaleidoscope mechanical trick
drama spectacle" and it IS a,l OF that
There rs much Of the mysterious In II,
but it Is all funny, and In fact In spite