The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-16
MORRISON
TALKS.
The Veteran Actor
Is Revealing in
Tropics.
STAGE PLANS
FOR HONOLULU
The Present Engagement and
What May be Expected in
the Near Future.

Lewis Morrison, the veteran actor, is
taking something more than a profess
sional stage delight in Honolulu. He
is running about from place to place
and going over the same ground again,
reveling in the scenery and enjoying
the hospitality of the people. Mr.. Nor
rison is surprised as well as charmed
by what he finds. He did not expect
such a show of well-expended wealth
in the architecture of the town; he had
not realized before what the glamour
of the tropics meant; he notes the up
to-date appearance of his audiences
and from the business done he has al
ready decided to come again.
| Mr.. Morrison is inclined, on his sec
ond visit, to come in mid winter, when
Honolulu people are hungriest for en-
ltertainment He has been advised that
February is a good month and will uR-
dertake, at that time, to bring over a
strong company. Ore reason. he says
why so few companies come here is
that the managers will not pay salaries
on shipboard, so that the actors lose
a fortnight's wages. The Morrison
Roberts company, however, is paid by
the season and cannot complain as
IT expect said Mr.. Morrison. yester-
day, ito do a large business here dur
ing this engagement. The houses have
been filled to hear one star, and now,
with two leading people on the stage,
we may reach the standing room only
point. I find great interest shown in
my coming production Of the Merchant
of Venice It appears that the High
school boys and girls have been study
ing the play and have caused a renewal
of home interest in it, so that not only
is the play generously bought of the
book stores but the desire to hear it
among theater-goers is common.
Honolulu does not see much of the
Legitimate, so we shall also present
'Richelieu' This play, as you remem-
Der is the only one in the English Ian
!guage which, in it's structure and maj
esty of expression, approaches the
great works of Shakespeare. It's auth
or is Bulwer-Lytton. The story runs
along the line of the court conspiracies
against the power of Richelieu; and its
great scene is that in which the weak
King of France, who has deprived the
cardinal of his political rank and title.
sends courtiers to abduct the old man.
ward, the beautiful Julie. It is then
that the Cardinal falls back on the pow
err of Rome and says:
Look where she stands Around
her form 1 draw the solemn circle
OF our awful Church!
Set but one foot within that holy ground
And on thy head, yea tho it wore a
crown
| I'll launch the curse of Rome!
The scene where Julie stands pro-
Itected and the abductors, mute and
trembling, drop to their knees, crossing
themselves, is one of the most thrilling
known to the stage"
Mr.. Morrison is a most agreeable man
/ to meet. He must be between fifty and
sixty years of age. was an officer in the
Civil war and played Romeo to Miss
Nelson's Juliet away back in 1873. In
1874 he went to California and has made
San Francisco his theatrical headQuar-
ters much of the time since. He is now
going to add Hawaii to his special baili-
wick.