The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-05-13
PROVIDENCE OPERA HOUSE.

"Are You Mason?" at the Providence
Opera house for the first three nights Of
the week and the usual matinee tomor-
row may be confidently set down as about
the funniest bunch since Charles
Aunt"
IL Is the work Of that interesting fellow,
actor and playwriter. Leo Ditrichstein.
At least. Mr.. ID. wrote the version in
English. He adapted II from the Ger
man of Laufs and Kratz and doubtless
he has been as faithful as possible to the
original vroncb
farce. made In Germany, and translated
II is a real farce, nothing but farce and
n Is real French In its theme II our luSa
of a French motive Is at all right oD
tanned chiefly from the run OF adapted
French farces that prevailed Few sea-
sons ago, when every third or iourli
play that came 10 town, was an ada ptasI
ton OF French farce. always advertised
as excruciatingly funny and sometimes
being So
An erring husband and his erring faith
cr-in-law are factors I'm great many
French farces and so-called French iarces
and they are the whole show In TINS Amer
ican-made-over. German made ffehch
farce As a rule. the erring acts are OF
as serious a nature as not TO be tolerated
for an instant In even Continental .hea-
tre, we should say, II they were intro
duced as q motive Tor SERIOUS spl''S%g Spn You
a Mason" but the fact need by no means
deter the twentieth century young woman
from permitting her mamma 10 see tho
For. after all. the erring husband and
father-n-law don't err during the pay
and their errors are but the iolhua tion ION
You don't see them. any more tllau IN, "a. -
see the foundation under the mouse !nei
sole purpose is to create conplcauohs
and ernbarrassments That WIN pe ol q
laugh provoking kind and III II tnsse @ VIA
ore the thing i'm the farce Nobody cares
a ran about the sins OF the slhiul s ph.s
IL is the laughable results ana lhS M iMilIr,
provoking penalties Ina, .nar 1r Mas mo notb4ng TO
do with the case once IL has sefVtu ~ ~
purpose of starting the whiriwlnd Una. -
to be sowed through ,nree hnnrnnIica lions
in Are You a Mason?' that dovetali into
one another TO keep the action gong, ~. IN
the first place. the husoand aho ;s tso Me-
son' though neither Is, and each thlnks
The other is, while the rest OF inc TOMS
think they both are. ..,,.. of cer-
II becomes necessary because OF GER
tain indiscretions attributed to Masonry
and lodge night festivities, 20 Hain'ain s l
their pretense: Moreover. there Is IL aSv Z,
had been indiscreet before his marriase
and. another female party with whom ,he
hu sband has been carrying on; An1, tr III
niest OF all. there is Leo loltricpsteln,,
author and actor. who finds II desirable
20 array himself i'm the garb OF woman
and who gets himself uproaTiously mixed
up in the other embarrassments ana con-
tributes 10 their further mixing.
To describe the plot of such farce
even BY suggestion. Is not an easy pro-
ceeding. and the result Is likely TO seem
inane The simple fact is that the bunch
of cross purposes is developed until there
would seem to be no limit to the extrava-
gance. But IL finally does reach limit
and explodes with mutual relief all around
TO the characters in the play and also re-
lief TO the wristbands of the audience.
nearly stretched TO bursting with laugh
ing.
The cast Is a capital one John G. Rice
and Sally Cohen, old friends i'm merry
vaudeville and light farce, are In the
company and 80 Is Thomas a. Wise, who
as the distressed fatherjn-law Is IRE
dstibly funny and so Is George Richards
OF Richards and Garfield distinction. and
such are others, all possessed of the true
receipt Of how to make you laugh.