The San Francisco call., 1905-03-13
BOOTHS NEPHEW
IS GOOD ACTOR
He Stars With Great Credit
in Monsieur Beaucaire"
at the California Theater
PLEASING HIGH COMEDY
Those Desiring to Enjoy
Skillful Presentation of
Play Should See Clarke

Those that stayed away from the
California last highland they were a
large and canny crowd-nissed in
Monsieur Beaucalre" one of the pret-
tiest high comedies seen here for a
long space. One does not blame the
absent crowd. The gods have dealt
hardly with the California of late.
There has been much of nothing that
one wanted to see, and the Sunday
nighter has "got on to" the fact But
with Monsieur Beaucafre." excellently
acted by Creston Clarke and his COM
pany, the long lane has turned. The
rankest Ibsenlte will enjoy. and the
matinee lass adore 1t.
OF course everyone knows the
sprightly story of Booth Harrington.
The play follows it closely. The
serious minded person will no doubt
object to the happy ending that is
thrust upon him, and the rest Of us
would not mind seeing the snobbish
Lady Mary get her deserts. AT least
one would have enjoyed her barber
duke lover insisting on introducing
shaving brush rampant into the family
coat of arms! However, the whole
thing is in very pretty and witty
spirit of romance. Bath. the one time
center of fashion and fOppishness. is
the scene of the story; French Duke
in disguise is its hero. and the
'.proudest lady in England" it's hero
inc. The Duke has run away from
France to escape made-to-order mar
riage, accompanying French noble as
his barber. He is recognized in Bath
as the barber, becomes then a gambler
in order to entrap the cheating Duke
of Winterset, whom, on discovery. he
compels TO introduce him into polite
society and to Lady Mary Carlisle. He
romantically imagineS that the lady
forgive SnnnOSQ6
his courage and charm-but she de-
clines the honor. However. as the
Duke, he wins her. The play is excel
lently put together, deftly. adroitly
made, and the lines are clever and
piquant throughout.
Creston Clarke who essays the title
| role, comes by his decided dramatic
gift with all honesty. He is a nephew
of Edwin Booth, and himself very IA
vorably known as a ShakeSpearean
actor. His Beaucaire is delightful To
begin with, Mr.. Clarkes French seems
to have been made in France. and not
! in Hoboken where so much of the stage
French seems to come from. The
whole thing is vividly French. supple.
| flexible, elegant, distinguished. Mr.
! Clarke, too, contrives to give very hap
| PLY the poetic side of the disguised
Duke, the charming romanticism. the
| gay lovableness. and altogether shows
himself an actor Of exceptional ac-
| complishment. In the pointed witty
and easy delivery of the lines this is
particularly evident.
And the supporting company is good
excellent in the case of Frank McDon-
| aid, who gives a capital and highly
convincing portrait of the scamp and
| bully, the Duke of Winterset. Roy
| Clements is a sincere and realistic
Molyneaux, and the men of the cast all
have manner, working together most
/, harmoniously for the ensemble Miss
| Agnes Ardeck lacks something of in
dividuality as Lady Mary, but neverthe-
less possesses considerable charm and
| Importantly, here, good looks Blanche
| Moulton is pungently amusing as the
scandal-mongering Countess. and the
| rest of the cast is useful There is
some pretty dancing and truly excit-
| ing fight among the plays other at
| fractions with mountings that would
| do every credit to the Columbia. In
! fact the box office could safely offer
money back for Monsieur Beaucaire''
and lose nothing.
BLANCHE PARTINGTON.
Two stunts on the Orpheum pro-
gramme are we'll worth the price of
admission, with the others thrown in
for good measure. Murphy and Fran
els, negro comedy couple, are top
liners In their Work. with willy Zlm-
norman, in impersonations, they are
the hits of the evening. Mabel Nc
Klnley introduces a new song. written
b. herself, entitled Arcadia" mean
ing, of course, California.
Two new sketches are also in the list
OF attractions. The first to appear was
that of Arthur Borani and Annie Ne
varo, in Weary Waggles,'' in contor-
; tionistic and acrobatic work of no
mean ability. Clayton White Marie
Stuart and Adelaide KnOwlton were
clever in a fair SKETCH entitled
] "Dickie.'
| The four sensational Boises, in aerial
acrobatics. and the motion pictures,
depicting automobiles breaking rec
| ords on the beach in Florida, occupied
the entire third act. The holdover
acts from last week are the Mallory
| brothers; Brooks and Holiday: Pesch-
koff company, Mabel Mckinley and
| Willy Zimmerman.