The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1906-02-20
Rev. John st. John. ID. ID. ....

Abe Peckham. .Edw. Bender
Joel wilkins. James Rogers
Zen Crocker. er..................,.t FRANK Logan
At the Providence opera House for the
week with matinees tomorrow, Washing
tons Birthday and Saturday, at popular
prices evenings and matinees. VIM. A.
Brady and Joe r. Grismer's production
OF LAS Ye Sow" four-act drama found
ed on life and incidents on Cape Cod. by
Rev. John snyder
! II looks as though Messrs. Brady and
Grismer have found IN "As Ye Sow a
suocessor to WAY Down East" assum-
ing, Of coudse. that the latter remarkable
play will ever quit making farewell tours
and give a successor chance at the lau-
tels OF half generation. more or less. OF
uninterrupted run"
way Down East" took hold where
Denman Thompson's "Old Homestead"
left of-as a piece OF dramatic construc-
tion. that Is. not In the sense that the
'Old Homestead was quitting when
Way Down East" began for the former
was at the height OF its popularity when
Phoebe Davis first portrayed the plaintive
Anna Moore. The Denman Thompson
play, which was a series OF episodes rath-
er than a consistent drauauc writing,
demonstrated a popular liking for the bu-
collie environment and Way Down
East took the cue and led succession
of bucolic dramas, now passed on and off,
in the presentation OF the old old stories
in a setting OF real hay ricks, jeans and
the dialect Of the farm and country side.
"As Ye Sow" goes It's Brady -Grismer
predecessor several better In respect TO
melodramatic virility and TO Judge by it's
reception by last evenings audience there
is not only still in existence lively lik-
ing for the bucolic sentiment and
atmosphere but also for the melodrama-
for all we are so often assured that this
is a period when nothing may wisely be
staged that does not appeal 10 our intel
lectuas without danger OF tiptillating our
emotions too severely, that dramatic art
should mean repression and that the more
complicated and asoteric the handling OF
a simple problem the better we shall be
pleased Like Way Down East" only
moro so. LAS Ye Sow takes n simple
problem. paints it with vivid colors. de-
clares and elucidates II stormlly, equirs Il
with all the resources OF the sort OF stage
craft that would rejoice the heart OF
child, and plumps the whole thing al YOU
like siege battery with the result that
II lifts you out Of your seat and makes
you want TO "hurrooi"
After all. the old old stories arc always
the same! Youmay set them In a drawing
room. you may clothe them I'm the garb
Of the middle ages or locate them In the
fantastic land OF a "Zenda. you may tell
them In tho speech OF a Shakespeare or n
Browning or a Bernard Shaw: you may
repress them TO two hours Of "asides" or
shout them through a megaphone-vari-
Gus methods please various people. The
essence or novelty lies IN demonstrating
how the old stories tell themselves in a
new environment and through the medl-
um of characters different from those we
are accustomed 10 having portrayed and
not In the stories themselves.
The big melodramatic climax OF As Ye
Cow is. 30 20 speak. double shotted The
heroine confesscs 10 the hero who Is q
minister. that she was before married
but deserted by her husband. who soe
the child. abandoned u somewhere and
then. according TO the best Information
she hes been able 10 CLEAN. went and got
himself washed overheard from n ship
The hero Is minus brother long
mourned While the hero and heroine are
walking into the church 10 the wedding
march. ship is discovered in distress
caught BY a sudden hurricane Tho nfe.
boat crew is short two men The hero
pulls on an oil skin over HE wedding
flock coat and takes An oar along with
aue Of the other characters whom the