Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-29

house by f. II. sothern and Julia Mar
lowe and supporting company under the
direction of Charles Frohman. The
cast:
Escalus .................,.. Mr.. Frank Kingdom
Paris .................. Mr.. sydney G. Mather
Montague .............. Mr.. Malcolm Bradley
Capulet ...........,.'...... Mr. Mllllatn Harrls
MercItio .............. Mr. q. Harrison Hunter
Renvolo .................. Mr. Norman Hackett
Tybalt t........................ MIR. r. l.. Coleman
I-riar r........,,,....... Mr. W. II. Crompton
Balthazar ..........,.....,... Mr.. Robert ). GIL
Sampson .................. Mr. Morgan Wallace
Gregory ......,........ Mr.. Gilbert Douglas
PetPr ............... Mr.. Rowland Blackstone
Abraham .............,...., Mr. Edison IL Miles
An Apothecary .......... MI Malcolm Bradley
An officer ...................... MI. itlcy oIultl
LADY Montague ............ Miss Doris Mitchell
Lady Capulet .............. Miss Alma Kruger
Juiiet ................... Miss Julia Marlowe
Nurse .-......,,,,....... ..... Mrs Sol Smith
Page .................... Miss Katherine Wilson
In Romeo and Juliet" as in the other
two productions, Mr.. Sothern and Miss
Marlowe have subordinated time
honored traditions to the dictates of
their own artistic personalities, so that
while some will cavil at departures
from established methods, many will
rejoice in Shakespearean productions
more elaborate and more carefully and
artistically presented than any ever
given before in Los Angeles.
Every detail in the mounting of the
three productions has been so con-
scientiously and ably carried out as to
make a series of almost perfect stage
pictures. Last evening there was a
warmth of coloring in the scenes that
was Oriental in its depth and brightness
and the roistering masques, bent only
on plea sure, made background against
which the chief figures of the tragedy
stood out with terrific and fascinating
beauty.
Neither Appears at Best
The art of neither star is shown to
the best advantage in this wonderful
story of love and death. Sothern turned
the sighs of lovesick youth into
the grief of despairing melancholy. Il
was Hamlet making love to Beatrice.
The "nighted color" assumed for the
character of the prince of Denmark
clung to him with dismal persistency
throughout the play; the love he
brought to Rosaline, instead of being
the passing passion of a lovesick boy
was, for all the difference he made In
his acting at his dawnng and growing
passion for Juliet, a feeling no mora
intense. Sothern, markedly in this
play, when he wishes to mount to great
tragic heights falls to ranting and thus
mars Shakspeare's greatest lines. His
appearance, the great beauty of his
figure and expression, the almost wo-
manly grace and poise with which he
moves about the stage, could not be
bettered. or the wonderful art he has
brought to arranging the color schemes
of his own costumes. Sothern'S Romeo,
like his Benedick. to sum up, suffers
from being too scholarly.
Few will cavil at Miss Marlowe's
especially so in the earlier scenes,
when delicious young girlhood. swayed
by overmastering passion. trying for
the coquettish arts she is too passion
ately fond, too splenddly direct to be
capa BILE Of was portrayed.
The scene with the old nurse in the
Italian garden-an exquisite scenic bit
by the way-was so eXquisitely young
that the whole house found itself in a
bubble of sympathetic laughter. Half
the honors of this scene go to Mrs. Sol
Smith, whose portrayal of the nurse
from first to last was a mastery bit
of character creation.
1t is in the final acts of the play,
when the girls passion becomes wom-
ans tragedy, that she is less convinc-
ing. 1t is tender and grievous mel
ancholy that has fallen upon her Juliet.
1t is not the tremendous passion that
Shakespeare visited upon the hapless
Veronese maiden. At the finale the
house left the theater in a tremendous
hush, but it was not torn by emotions
that a great emotional actress makes
her audience feel at that tragic climax.
Another actor in the company who
comes splendidly to the fore is G. Har-
rison Hunter as Mercutio. 1t is not
saying too much to state that that
hot blooded, fiery tongued Mercutio has
scarcely been better rendered-cer-
tainly not before a Los Angeles audi
ence. His death was just the tragic,
mad thing Shakespeare made it, and 1t
left last nights audience laughing and
crying. The others of the company
performances.