Los Angeles herald., 1905-02-26
1.-TWO events which are of more than
ordinary interest to the Los An


1.-TWO events which are of more than
ordinary interest to the Los An
geles student of the drama are
announced for this week beginning to-
morrow evening. Judah will be pro-
duced at the Belasco theater and a
dramatization of Ramona" will be on
the stage Of the Mason.
Ramona" has become almost sa-
cred character with the people Of Los
Angeles, and the spirit of enterprise
which prompted Miss Virginia Cal
houn and her associates to place 1t up
on the stage is to be commended. es-
peclally for it's daring. There Is every
indication that the production will be
a wonderful success. 1t must be that
or nothing. Half measures would not
be tolerated in igving life to "Ra-
mona"
Past work on the part of the Be-
lasco company stands as assurance that
Judah" will be an interesting and val
liable performance from almost any
point of view. This drama by Henry
Arthur Jones was produced first on
May 81, 1890, and since that time has
achieved place as a modern classic.
An idea of the play can be had from
the following quotationttaken from a
very excellent volume on the English
stage by Augustin Filon:
"a young girl named Vashti Dethic
has been brought UP by her father to
the role of clairvoyant and miracle
worker, extreme poverty, extreme
youth. moral force carried, perhaps, to
the point OF terrorizing-she has abund-
ant excuses for adopting this horrible
the enthusiasm of her stupid devotees,
constrain her to persevere in an i'm
posture which she loathes.
I'VE pity her and are grateful to the
author for diverting our scorn to the
wretched Dethic. We are willing to
believe that a high-strung, nervous girl
may imagine herself to be the subject
of marvellous influences. When vashti
is subjected to a fast of three weeks,
and when, by the merciless vigilance
of her watchers, this fast threatens to
become too real, the young girls hero
ism touches us in spite of ourselves,
as much as though it were devoted to
better cause. We form the absurd
wish that her father may succeed IN
smuggling some food. to her-we are all
for the miracle against science, for
charlatanism against the truth. which
is going as far as one can be gone.
Or rather, we have developed an in
terest in a poor human creature in
serious peril, and without rejecting
upon her character, we hope she may
escape. How would it be If we were
passionately in love with her? Thus it
is with Judah Llewellyn.
These two names are noteworthy,
The author calls our attention by them
to the dual origin of his hero, Celtic
and Jewish. This mixed ancestry ex-
plains, doubtless, both the fantastic
and the impulsive side of his nature,
and the mastery of the religious instinct
in its conflict with the ardors and
passions of the imagination
? Judah is endowed with a burning
eloquence. the secret of which he gives
in the simple statement, II believe what
l say" This faith, which carries away
the uncultured, inspires the respect of
men of the world One listens to him
without a smile, when he talks of the
voices which have called upon him in
the night. Some people may not believe
that the voices did call upon him; but
all believe that he heard them calling.
Thus his church became too small for
the multitude who came to seek nour-
ishment, or rather intoxication, in his
words.
This man has to pass through va
rious phases of mind before our eyes.
At first he loves Vashti with an humble.
ecstatic love, in which religious enthu-
siasm seems to enter more than the
human passion. In his eyes she is a
superior being-privileged the elect of
God. He dares not defile her with a
carnal thought; it is enough for him
to kiss the hem of her robe. But it
chances one evening that he is an in
Voluntary WllHcSS VI tnS desperate ell
fort of Vashti's father to get some
food for her during her fast. At once,
almost without transition, by the force
of circumstances that permit no time
for deliberation, he becomes her ac-
complice. He saves her by lie, and a
lie which carries the more weight in
that his vePacity has never been called
In question.
"A vulgar writer would not have
failed to show us Judah raising him
self to his full height and invoking
curses upon the woman he had pro-
tected, and fleeing afterward to a SOL
itude where he would be tortured by
the visions of lost happiness. Mr.. Jones
has done just the opposite. Judah's
first sensation is a burst of wholly hu-
man joy. Vashti is not an angel or a
saint. but a woman. a frail creature.
like to himself, whom he may love
without thought of sacrilege. 1t is not
until later that remorse makes itself