The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1905-05-05
SPANISH PLAY
At CALIFORNIA
Miss Anglin Climbs High i'll
Emotional Scale in Per-
sonating Miss Mariana
THRILLS ARE PLENTY
Audience Takes It's Breath
in Clasps During Most of
the Performance of Piece

We may have taken the Philippines
from Spain; she has still left her Eche-
garay. 1t would go hardly with us
were we asked to pit playwright for
playwright against this brilliant Span
lard. 1t would go hardly With US were
we asked to pit play for play against
Mariana yesterday afternoon pre-
sented here for the first time by Mar
garet Anglin.
EchegaIay is neither the Ibsen nor
the Suuermann of Spain, yet his work
seems to have been influenced by both
dramatists. The lbsen note is unmis
taxable in the lei Gran Galeoto." II
is perhaps lbsen by way of Sudermann
of whom one Is so frequently reminded
in the Mariana" You get it in the
pulsing reality of the figures, in the
relentless sacrifice of the redundant
note, in the nne freedom and sincerity
OF the handling Of story. You get 1t in
the almost unerring dramatic sense, IN
the clean, swift, logical swing OF the
play from point to point to the final
tragedy but there is in the play
picIuresqueness peculiar TO Echegaray,
an atmosphere of romance, new use OF
old dramatic device ana d lively humor
all his own.
Peculiarly effective is the dramatist's
VI uci OtilC- w iiCoi
a voice singing as the curtain goes up
and then black browed person Gen
eral Pablo affirms TO his sister (Trini-
dad that despite the singing persons
attractions he is going to marry Mari
ana Into the salon then come the va
rious people of the play, Mariana on
every tongue. her character, her mys-
FERROUS history.
You are equally curious with the
stage folk about her when she comes
in Coquette, willful heartless. charm
ing, as they say, she seems. To Dan
ielo she gives a lily from her breast,
and five teasing, tender, charming
minutes, then to Don Pablo she gives
a rose and her hand on his arm from
the room. The first acts close shows
Danielo called away by the illness of
his father, and Mariana going with
Pablo to the theater.
In the next act comes a marvellous
little revealing scene where Mariana
tells her guardian, who is remonstrat
ing with her for her treatment OF
Danielo of her childhood. Her father
was cold, cruel. Her mother. ah. One
night she dreamed that her doll kissed
her. She woke to find 1t was her
mother kissing her between sobs. A
man stood behind her. who kissed to
her: love" Not without her." said
the mother, land like a doll or a
lunatic, she dressed me and the ribbon
of my coat strangled me, and l was
eight years old. We went to London.
My mother cried in Madrid, she cried
far more in London. l never cried
The mother died The child was
brought back to Spain, her father al
ways away" her governess always
there" And that man that killed nv
mother, have seen him shed tears for
love of her Danielo has not yet shed
tears for me, but he shall! he SHALL"
The audience took its breath-when
ii stopped to take it-in gasps here.
1t took its breath pretty much in
gasps throughout the rest of the play.
When Danielo is discovered to be the
son of the man who took away Mari
ana's mother. and Mariana, loving
him, puts her hand into Pablo's-you
think here that it is impossible to keep
UP the emotional pitch. 1t goes up
octaves in the last act No more pow
erfui situation than the final one,
where Mariana is about to fly on her
wedding night with Danielo, can easily
be conceived. He ties her cloak about
her throat It is tight, and in the
strange of it she remembers and sees
in her lover the son of the man that
killed her mother. She calls to her
husband, tells him that she loves Dan
ielo, that she is going away with him.
You promised 10 save me from my
self" she shrieks. Don Pablo stands
still. Don't you understand? / am
going away with him. Her answer is
a shot.
Certainly Mariana is the most inter-
esting as 1t is the most varied imper-
sonation Miss Anglin mas so far es-
sayed 1t is perhaps the most superb
" successful. Clever to degree is
the Spanish suggestion Of the figure,
the very turn of the eye. every ges-
ture to the most admirable makeup
Emotionally Miss Anglin has never
been more potently convincing, more
exquisitely thrilling, more profoundly
moving. Nor can one imagine the
character anywhere more intelligently
conceived, more brilliantly acted. It is
one of the very big things that Miss
Anglin has done, one Of the biggest
done by any one in recent local stage
history.
Frank worthing and Walter E.
Hitchcock are notable in the support
as Danielo and Don Pablo. Arthur Law
renee, Walter Allen, Miss Cartwright
opI Mise Uhiffon also fokin0 offoo$;xa