The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-02
LONDON HAS REALLY
FUNNY PLAY WHICH
AMERICANS MAY SEE

s'Just Like CaIlaghan" Is Now
Diverting the Worlds Metrop-
oils Irine's Coming Tour
With Dante"
LONDON, Aug. Just Like Gala
ghan,' the latest French farce to be
adapted and produced in London, has
caught the fancy of playgoers here to
such an extent that it is practically
certain to be tried at home before long.
Perhaps some announcement to this
effect has been published in America.
though nothing definite has been dis
closed here as yet.
However, it can be said that if the
piece, which is an adaptation by Cosmo
Gordon LennoX of LIE Coup de Fouet,'
is given in the United States with an
American company it is pretty sure to
do well. The work of adapting has
been well done. and about the only
fault to be found. with the farce as it
is now being given at the Criterion is
that it is not played with sufficient
lightness of touch. In the hands of
Americans, however, that matter is
sure to be made right.
The hero of Just Like Callaghan"
is the inevitable frolicsome husband of
French farce, but this Lothario is
rather clever. To lessen the chances
of his being detected in any of his lit
tie f1irtations, he has invented for him.
self double, whom he has named
"Callaghan." He tells his wife about
being mistaken for Callaghan in the
street He also writes her anonymous
letters telling her that her husband has
been seen in all sorts of compromising
situations at hours when the better
half knows perfectly well that her lord
and master was at her side. Callaghan,
of course!
All is going swimmingly when the
trusting wife is visited by woman
friend of more suspicious nature.
She hears of the mysterious Callaghan
and suspects. The husband gets wind
of her conjectures and decides on
bold stroke. Attired in Irish home
spun and sporting a glorious brogue.
he calls on his own wife and her friend
in the capacity of Callaghan-the OBJ
ject being to convince them both that
the double actually exists. But just
as, having practically ACCOMPLISHED
this. he is about to withdraw he is
seized with a severe cramp in the leg.
To his horror he finds that he can
neither leave as Callaghan nor return
as himself. 1t would be pity to tell
how it all came out. but this is only
the beginning of the tangled web"
which this deceiver weaves. and his eff
forts to escape therefrom are as anus
ing as they are ingenious.
Irving as Dante.
Probably Sir Henry Irving has done
we'll in deciding to make Dante his
only production during his coming tour
in the United States. The Sardou play,
with it's striking scenes in the internal
regions, calls for about all the prop
critics that any one actor manager
would care to take across the Atlantic,
and then, too, Sir Henry probably
wouldn't have cared to give any of the
pieces in which he and Miss Ellen
Terry invariably have appeared to-
gether on the other side. of the water
without the assistance of his dear
comrade." as he calls her
The famous representative of Por-
tia is, of course, now starring with her
own company and under contract to
appear separately in the United States
later on. Sir Henry's decision to leave
lYl failtCAiCet OCl. 4IU-Op0HllR at the
Broadway theater, New York, on Oct
26--wilf give him. too, an opportunity
to get i'm provincial tour during
which "Pante" will be an attraction
The joint production of Messrs. Sar-
dou and Moreau has been fair sue
cess at Drury Lane, and probably will
prove a draw in America by virtue of
its own much advertised and really
Impressive scenes in the Inferno. There
- haa Il IL
losity to learn whether Sir Henry him
self regards this extraordinary hodge
podge of Dante's real life, the poets
imaginings and happenings such as
Sardou only would be capable of con-
.ceiving, as really good play, or wheth-
er, In offering it to the public. he had
his tongue in his cheek Evidently,
however. from the jocose reference to
Dante" which Sir Henry made at the
Gaiety farewell performance the other
night. he does not view the worldly
product of the two Frenchmen with
great seriousness.
The knight described himself as IAN
old neighbor of thirty years stand
ing, who used to carry on a different
sort of shop (the Lyceum) over the
way, and still is in the same line of
business-hell and that kind of thing
not far off,
the run of Monsieur Beaucaire,' at
the Comedy, to a close. this does not
mean that the American plays career
in London is over. "Beaucafre" has
run over 300 nights. but business kept
SO good that Waller will start off with
a revival of the Harrington Sutherland
comedy when he opens the Imperial
theater. which he leased recently from
Mrs. Langtry, next fall.
Having been entertained recently by
company of real" Japanese players,
and with an assemblage of real
American coons now on view at one of
her chief playhouses. London is prom
ised a visit from a troupe of "Fear' Chi
nese actors. This is the Oriental COM
pany which appeared at ST. Peters,
burg recently. Their success there was
so great that they will visit Vienna,
Berlin and Paris before coming here,
and there is just a chance of their
making tour of the United States.
THE SUMMER TOUR.