The sun., 1905-09-12
TIE WINE OF"MARY AND JOHN
A CASE or "GUESs AGAIN" AT THE
MANHATTAN.
An Admirable Cast Struggles to Lift the
Incubus =. . Pale and Watery Re1ex
or ,i,o Old Daily Comedy John Mason
Annie Yeamans and Amy Nicard.

INCUBUS .. q PoIe anu WuteFy neutN
or u,o Old Daily Comedy John Mason
Annie Yeamans and Amy Ricard.
1t blows hot and II blows cold at the Man
haitian. Last night frost settled on tho
house that congcaled a hopeful audience
and turned the deluge on the sidewalk
awning into ioicles. For three mortal
acts company composed OF much Of the
best timber Of the "Hedda Gnbler" and
Leah Kleschna" casts. and augmented
by admirable new talent, struggled with
silent tears to lift the incubus Of the play
Mary and John does not sound like
the title Of u great comedy, and it struck.
In fact. the one true note of the evening
That Edith Ellis Baker has ambitions both
dramatic and histrionic WAS evidenced u
few years ago In one of those forlorn hopes
ut the Berkeley Lyceum. Her former effort
was triumph compared to this one.
Anything more vapid, trivial and feeble
1t has seldom been the lot Of first nighters
to- witness. Mary. like her napiesahe Of
the song, may have guessed that it would
be champagne for hers; but John, abettsd
6y the author, made 1t "a case Of guess again.
came when the thunder and lightning
machine, invented for MARY of Magdala,"
was turned loose on Mary and John
Net that the play lacked an idea. 1t
happens when an advanced woman quits
a career to marry good old fash
ioned fogy OF a young man for hus-
band. The action last night turned on the
fact that the husband looked with senti-
mental anticipation toward the time when
his wife would come and ask him, her lord
and master. for money. while she. on her
side, was too proud in her new womanhood
even to hint at an allowance. Hence a
quarrel, which ended in her going back,
not to home and mother, but to her former
bohemian life Of the studio.
II the situation had Eeen treated with
even the simu!acrum of sincerity it would
have deserved detailed consideration, hut
the Lest that can be said of it IL that it s
pale and watery reflex OF the old fashioned
rowed from the Germans. The mildest
hammered man deserves sympathy who
cannot get up a better fight with his wife
than that which separated Mary and John.
and any woman who cannot make braver
dash for liberty deserves the fate OF
hdusfrdn.
1t was rumorcd In the lobby that the
American Dramatsts' Society IL about
to approach tire author and respectfully
beg her to impart the recipe by which
she succeeded in getting 80 good q proouc.
ton. 1t is secret which we implore Miss
Baker to guard forever and always.
John Mason was John. and did all that
ripe talent and earnest effort could Sadie
Martinot reappeared after a long vacation
from Broadway. and as Mary was also
earnest and intelligent. That admirabl
young character actor William B. Mack,
the DISTINGUISHED Tesmen and the unfor-
Eettable Sehrdm was lost in the T5ts Of
hnpecked husband and feeble minded
father in danger Of chorus girls. Vivien
Holt did creditably as a comic Swedish
servant, and Ida A. Thomas likewise as a
grotesquely exaggerated sewing woman.
Perhaps the most telling performances
Of the evening were those of Amy Rcard
lorn hope of an artist attra cted from the
hinterland by the glamour of bohemian life,
and Miss Yeamans in her conventional
part Ct on Irish servant. Some good lines
fell to both actresses and they did wonders
u;tb than