The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1905-05-09
Miss MdrlOWe Shows
d Vast Improve
ment.
S0THERN WINS PRAISE
Familiar Play Has
Test From Beauty
Of Acting.

AS q young rose hung with morn
ing dew, kin TO all youth, spring and
loveliness, is Julia Marlowe's Juliet.
Last night, after nine years, Miss Mar
lowe gave again in San Francisco what
has perhaps been rightly held her
most notable characterization Mr.. E.
II. Sothern made his debut here as
Romeo. Mr.. Charles Frohman pre-
senteo a surrounding production OF
most admirable sort. A good house,
though uncrowded, saw the play.
Perhaps 1t is the fault of Ben Greet,
% Nho in notwithstanding us in the mat
ter Of Shakespeare without scenery has
lent US the more eXacung sophistica-
ton OF simplicity. But one would fain
have seen last nights cast play "Ro-
meo and Juliet" in the Elizabethan
fsshion-this, too. without any ingrati-
tude for Mr.. Frohman's truly splendid
settings. Fifteen scenes in five acts is
e rather tremendous lot Of pictures to
take IN with one play.
One finds the constant change dis
tracing One finds IL difficult to hang
on TO the rhythm OF the thing. One be-
gins TO question, then TO remember
that Shakespeare wrote for the cur
tainless stage. Then, when one gets
the scene in Juliet's bedchamber, a
magnificent picture, one is again CRATE
All -yA the oAdhSSRc6Ie according TO
Frohman- Perhaps, though, the stag
ing is Of fashion with the sweet in
creoibleness of the play. Perhaps as
picture after picture, verse after verse
IL comes cOnvincingly enough as, what
il IS, one OF the world-poems.
That is what the play became with
every moment that Miss Marlowe
brought TO II. So with much that Mr.
SOthern had to give. Miss Marlowe
seems just old enough to know ex-
Quisitely how TO be young. For her
sheer beauty as a picture one must see
her 10 get any adequate idea Per
fectly the illusion Of young girlhood
TO the very whiteness Of the voice. is
obtained. Most happily her first
scenes are keyed. There is the gay,
care-free, almost frolic humor that
forms such needfuI and beautiful foil
10 the gravity Of the later scenes. It
IS with this gayety that Miss Marlowe
carries one through Juliet's swift fall
ing above. Shakespeare asks much
here Of his lovers, what you and I
would give them half a play at. Yet
Miss Marlowe, with Mr.. Sothern, vic
toriously creates the illusion.
The balcany scene was nothing
short Of adorable. A witching bios
sony creature. all innocence, all love.
was Miss Marlowe's Juliet here. She
was OF a part with the moonlight. with
the nightingale's song, with the roses
climbing TO her window. Yet most
sweetly she suggested the good sense
Of the maid, who asks if the lover
means honorably to we'd her. Her
cOquetry is delicious, her womanliness
all charming. The scene with the
nurse, as she brings the news of
ROmeo's arrangements for the we'd
ding, with its coaxing, teasing, beguil-
ing, was another most delicate hit of
artistry.
Then when the deeper notes came to
be sounded was equal truth, equal
charm. The growth Of the character
was suggested with eloquent convfc-
ton. Juliet in her bedchamber. taking
the sleeping draught, bidding farewell
10 her mother, her nurse was all wo-
man, tender with Woman's tenderness
imprisoned with woman's passion.
But lovely as the tears that wet Miss
Marlowe's cheek here is the restraint
the quiet keying of the tragedy
throughout. Sorrowful only. not pain
ful, it is, and entirely exquisite.
Mr. Sothern. a little somber in the
opening scenes even for a gentleman
sick Of love for a cold beauty, later
becomes spirited and youthful. He is
poetic and effective in the balcony
scene and in the duel scene a most
dashing hero. One cannot imagine a