Los Angeles herald., 1905-06-07
STILL PRINCE IN
REALM OF COMEDY
NAT C. GOODWIN APPEARS IN
"THE USURPER"
OPPORTUNITIES ARE LIMITED
Large Audience Bears Testimony
That He Is One Of the Few Fa-
vorites and Deserves spe-
ciaI Credit
"The Usurper.

Aht NSul HOis
A comedy-drama in four acts by ].
N. Morris, presented last evening at the
Mason opera house by n. c. Goodwin
and supporting company under the
direction of George j. Appleton. The
cast:
Basil, Lord Dulverton MIR. Norman Tharp
Sir George Trenery. Mr.. Ellie Norwood
Rob Quentin ..........M Mr.. Felix Edwardes
Sergeant Dale..............M Mr.. w: II; Post
Timmons .................M Mr. Neil o. Brten
Lady Dulverton ....... Miss Ina Goldsmith
Beatrice Give ..."...: Miss Ruth Mackay
Polly Maddox ....... Miss Florence Parker
Rosina Briggs ..... Miss George Mendum
Margaret Quentin .......Miss Ethel Beale
1.-The Usurper" is a serious comedy
drama and to many in last evenings
audience it's chief disappointment was
that it afforded so good a comedian as
Mr.. Goodwin so few opportunities
to provoke laughter. What drollery
there was in the play was well brought
forward by the star and company and
it formed a pleasant flavor to melo-
dramatic series of incidents. There are
some intense climaXes excellently sus-
tained and made to appear infinitely
more plausible than most of what
passed for truth in the same authors
ht-to-be-forgotten "Jim Bludsoe,"
but that mastery of stage technique
which makes a play a harmonious
whole was lacking.
Mr.. Goodwin has the role of John
Maddox, cowboy who has made his
nd - nola mr. m find tho
girl with whom he fell in love ten
years before on the plains in America.
He becomes the lessee of a baronial
estate and finds the girl. but in order
to make the necessary complication the
author has her engaged to a neighbor-
ing landowner, Sir George Trenery. 1t
is the bringing about of the usual
happy ending that makes the play
from this point on.
Villain in Disguise
This conclusion is reached by the
easy process of making Sir George
villain in disguise and the hero one of
the few persons able to see him in his
right light and the only one able to
DTllB MIN W Ills just AC
heroine, Beatrice Give. is made spe-
cially dense in reading the villSin's s
true character, and the author has her
insist that she will believe no slanders
and that she will marry Sir George in
spite of everything.
These noble resolves of hers do not
daunt the astute cowboy hero, who
says he knows he cannot have Beatrice
Give for sill his ten years waiting and
his twenty millions, but that he will
see to it that Sir George, the black
guard, doesn't. In order to prevent
her from eloping with her fiance, Mad
dox chucks her into the tower room
where the servant unwittingly locks
them in as he closes the house for the
night.
Conveniently in that same tower there
is in hiding the father of the girl who
was "wronged," as the papers say, by
Sir George. Once in an effort for ven-
geance he was careless enough to
shoot the wrong man, and for that they
put him in prison, from which he has
escaped and has come to hide in the
tower, from where he can appeal to
Sir George and perhaps await another
opportunity to satisfy the honor of his
family name. In an intense scene
which follows the caging of these three
characters together the heroine learns
the truth concerning the man she was
marrying. The convict lays down in a
curtained embrasure for a sleep, which
ends in death. Maddox and Beatrice
Give find some supper which the con-
victs daughter has brought for her
father-and the rest is easy.
Mr.. Goodwin's Acting
1t is unnecessary to speak of Mr.
Goodwin except 10 say he is still the
finished actor whom we have learned
to admire in the years that have passed
and gone He still uses the same quiet
methods and his work has yet the ole
naturalness that has always made hin
so acceptable. His opportunities are
not so great as in other plays will
which he has been connected, but they
are ample to show that ne is still
worthy to be reckoned among the
princes in the realm of comedy. His
face has lost none of its wonderful
mobility, his voice nothing of its music
his eyes none Of their power of express
sion. That he is still a favorite the
large audience last night bore eloquent
testimony and that he deserved th'
favor with which he met none viii
deny.
Miss Ruth Mackay made stately
Beatrice Give. bur failed to convince
i'm some of the more difficult scenes
Florence Parker was delightfully."- siren
uous as typical American girl" and
Georgie Mendum gave distinction e
the role Of the stenographer. Ethe
Beals was sufficiently intense for the
unfortunate girl. The others of the
company were satisfactory.
The play was sumptuously mounted
and the curtain tableaux were excel
lentIy arranged especially where th'