Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-25

A Messenger ............ Mr.. Pedro de cordoba
A Rov ...................... Miss Dorothy Sadler
Hero ...................... Miss Eleanor Sanford
Beatrice .................... MISS Juna Marlowe
Margaret .................... Miss Doris Mitchell
Ursula ............................M Mrs woodward
Into Much Ado About Nothing"
Shakespeare breathed the quintessence
of sprightliness and wit. He brought
together in this comedy a collection of
characters so varied and inimitable
as to present an enduring freshness on
the stage. No truer test of ability in
comedy can be offered performers than
in the roles of Benedick and Beatrice.
1t was given last evening at the Mason
opera house as it has probably never
been given before in Los Angeles.
Stars of such magnitude in such a
masterpiece were an event in the the
atrical world of Los Angeles which
filed the theater at unusual prices.
1t was an audience, however, which
made the players earn every bit of
applause accorded them. Both Miss
Marlowe and Mr.. Sothern made their
first entrance without a hand" 1t
was not until the close of the chapel
like the ovation which one might ex-
pect belonged rightfully to produc-
tion of this value.
AS was expected. the scenic effects
were elaborate. They were made so
with a taste which showed that too
much scenery is as bad as Ben Greet's
none at all. The chapel scene was
especially effective.
Mr.. Sothern's Benedick is not an
even complement to the effervescent
Beatrice of Miss Marlowe. While the
actress insists from the first on the
sparkling coquetry and youth of
Beatrice, expressing not at all the un-
dercurrent of melancholy in the char
acter that makes possible the splendid
climax of Act ", Sothern, instead of
taking the actress cue-hers is the
more dominant note-insists on Ben
edick's misanthropic nature. and with
a delicate and minute working out of
detail, conscientious but utterly lack
ing in magnetism or spontaniety, builds
up a character that readers of Shake
speare's droll comedy do not recognize.
The impression left on the mind is
strongly that Miss Marlowe and Mr..
Sothern read their lines from different
standpoints and act according to their
own reading-act marvelously-but at
variance with each other.
Miss Marlowe in the first three acts
was an exquisite embodiment of youth
full, extravagant good spirits, the
good spirits of witty high spirited
girl. Her perfect, flexible voice read
into the lines new beauties that the
most careful readers toll for in vain.
1t was in the emotional flight of the
fourth act, when the latent seriousness
of Beatrice, her passionate and real
rebellion at the unequal sex battle
Shakespeare is modern in this scene
rises to the surface and finds voice in
that vengeful impulse. xiii Claudio!"
1t is here that Miss Marlowe is uncon-
vincing. Her passion of rebellious
tears in the chapel, her movement of
abandon, is a tremendous artistic ac-
complishment; but she transforms
Beatrice in the next breath and almost
TO the end of the act into a woman
some fifteen years older, who could not
have understood the girls abandon
ment of the moment before. 1t is
overstraned emotional work and lacks
fine shading.
Mr.. Sothern, on the contrary. rises
to his highest in this act, where he
really has right to the long scholars
face of tragedy he has pulled during
the first droll scenes.
The supporting company is in every
respect quite adequate and in many re-
spects unusual, T. L. Coleman's
Father Francis, w. II. Crompton's An
tonic and Edison Miles charming Bal
thazar, whose Sigh No More. Ladies'"
deserves a special paragraph.