The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-03-26
'sNANCY STAIR" A SUCCESS
By Franklin Eyles.

4 D
IN sitive, conscientious girl. believing
her lover has murdered his rival
I commit a forgery TO save him from
punishment for his cfime2 Paul Potter
says yes in his drama OF Nancy Stair
The question has a wheedling actress,
Mary Mannering. to plead in the affir-
native, and she is a persuasive creature
with her beauty of face and voice to
confuse and confound our judgment
| Iheatrieally irresistible, too. is her eX-
plot with a counterfeiting pen. The
Duke OF BOrthWicke sits dead in a
chair where a ScOrned woman has shot
! him, with pen still in his hand and a
few lines of a letter before him So,
when Nancy comes upon him. knowing
that her madly jealous lover. DanVers
AacGregor, has threatened to kill him.
she does not doubt that DanVers is
guilty But his Jealousy proves the
genuinenesS of his passion for her; and
besides. she has cOquettishIy let him
! believe that she means to marry the
Duke. y way to shield him is open be-
fore her She takes the pen from the
hand of the corpse, seats herself at
the opposite side of the table and forges
the continuation OF the letter. imitat-
ing the Dukes writing. making him
say that he is about to die suicide.
and attaching his seal to the fraudulent
TnissiVe Thereafter the play. which is
based on Elinor Mccartney Lanes nov
el, becomes u melOdrama OF CircumStan-
tisIl evidence, with DanVers tried and
All but convicted by u malevolent judge.
who refuses to delay the case until the
letter may be fetched from London to
Edinburgh. So the sentimental forger
IS compelled TO give true testimony
against the man for whom she has
made the false evidence.
The trial is one of those great stage
shows. which. twenty years ago, We're
regarded as marvels in stagecraft if
well he done. but which have become
matters of course in these times Of
mastery stage realism. The prisoner
is the chief of the Scottish clan Mac
GregCr and his people are there TO sus-
tain him by their demonstrative pres
ence- The judge is the infamous Car
CIV, Halter CT all Highlanders and de-
termined to send the MacGregOT to the
SallOWs. Nancy is the unwilling main
witness for the prosecution, distracted
by belief i'm her lovers guilt. by her
desire to save hiS-Iife and by the-ordeaI
of telling - hiDSS which must convict
him. Mr. Potter doesn't explain why
having made herself a f0rger i'm his
behalf. she won't become a perjurer.
too. She might at least refuse To ans
wer questions and defy the judge to
make her speak. Nor does the dramat-
list give any reason why she hasn't
let her lover know of her desperate eff
fort o-cleaT him, instead of listening
mute to his denUnciatiou of her as
faithless and pitilesS. But at the mo-
IneHt we don't think Of those things,
unless we are there to pick flaws in
stead of yielding to the general potency
of the situation, for sweet Mary Man
neTing is in distress and our hearts 60
out to. her. And we applaud delight
eddy when Il man breaks through the
crowd GREATNESS from the fatigue of
travel, tattered from fighting with ras-
Gals who have delayed him. and de-
he H.
time to turn the verdict of guilty into
one of innocence.
It is Robert Burns who brings in the
precious paper. In the book the Scot
lsh bard was one Of Nancy Stairs
wOOers, and SO he is in the play: but
Mr. Potter makes him. as Mrs Lane
did not, the girls messenger to fetch
the letter. The poets approach to the
court room is heralded by music. the
crowd makes a cOmmotion. and instant
ly he, not the MacGregor. is the hero
That is good for theA play but bad for
the star, for it takes the audiences
attention all away from Miss Man
nering. 50 that a the rousing third-act
climax she is suddenly out of the cal
ciun2's focus
ON my, but Burns shouldn't have an
entrance like that" said the actress
at a rehearsal. as she watched the
stage oltttbOf = prepare lions
But l save the MacGreSor's life you
know remarked Tim Frawley. the
impersOnafUr Of Burns.
Il know YOU do she responded. and
also know you'll Kill Nancy Stair
But Miss Mannering's protest was in
vain, and, just as she had foreSeeu. 1
she was as dead from that moment to
the fau of the curtain as the Duke of
Borthewicke had been when she forged
his letter.
Although Nancy Stair is a meIo-
drama, as | have said, il has a spell
OF light opera and spell of musical
comedy, with the favorite poems of
Boh5ie Burns sung to familiar Scotch
tunes Nancy is altogether out of those
portions of the entertainment. and 50
is the MacGregor: nor is the bard him
self a principal participant in them:
for instead of raising his own voice in
"BannOckbuTn' and Aud Lang Syne."
he stands aside with the chorus of
jolly tOpers at the MarrOwbOnes club
While an incidental Tom Rankine takes
the center of the stage, and the eyes
as well as the ears Of the audience.
That is i'm the quarter hour of first
rate light opera. The spell of musical
comedy comes an hour or so later. at
the White Horse inn. where the Mar
rowbones Jewellers have an equal num-
Der OF jolly 1ades for boon companions.
Bawby Boorns hae written a new
poem" says fat Will Nicol, IAN he cas-
eet 'Coomin' Thro' tina Rye
'Wha's tina Rye2" a girl asks.
Now, to people who know that the
iaSsie whom the laddies smiled at, and
one kissed, as she came through the
rye, didn't dampen her ''petticOaties
in the dew of a field, but in the water
of d creek, it seems an impertinence to
make Tom Rankine correct the popular
error But IL was clear that even a
Broadway first-night houseful believed
the rye TO have been the kind that
Scotch whiskey is made %. 1t was eS-
sentiaI that there should be no misun-
Outstanding If the lassles when. in the
manner of musical comedy showgirlS.
they held up their "petticoatieS'
rOguishly, tripped from one stepping
stone to another. and were busSed.
each by her laddie, as they sang the
ballads refrain. However. there was
at least one woman present who
Wouldn't believe Potter.
'Oh bosh.'' [ heard her say behind
me to her escort; Pm not going to lose
faith in the picture of Coming Through
the Rye that has hung in grandma's
room ever since l was a tot"
l know the one she meant, and some
of my readers will recall ft--a mezzo-
tint that was given away as a pre-