The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-02
BELASCO AND THE DRAMA.
'STHE ROSE. OF THE RANCHO'S''
!! TRIUMPH AND FAILURE.
me Poetic beauty or IT'S Pictures % spanish
CSlirOrnia- A Fine Drama II Lost In the
shume-Miss frances Starr as re
81 created by stage Manager Belasco.

created Dy stage Msnsgtr beissco.
.!Mr. David Belasco's extraordinary, almost
unique, powers nave seldom been more
hhely in evidence han in The Rose Of the
Rancho both as a trainer Of actors and
- a poet in stage management. In all that
tteets the external senses the production
u oonsummate. But as regards the inner
spirit Of the art OF the theatre he has seldom
given occasion for deeper regret.
I'm the past he has dealt for the most
part in the raw emotions OF melodrama.
ahd he has handled them somewhat crudely
n the manner Of the drama Of situations,
soaring many a leaf from its master, Sardou.
The arts OF scene painting, lighting. cos
tuning, grouping and acting can cast a
glamour upon these things, but only a
glamour. In THE Rose Of the Rancho he Ia
dealing with a real and characteristic
epoch Of American life which is familiar
o. many Of us; and In the play. which was
originally written by Richard Walton Tully,
he has a story capable Of truthful, moving
and significant development. II the appeal
10 the understanding had been as subtle
and as potent as the appeal to the eye
and the ear, not only our stage would have
been the gamer but our dramatic literature
IA well.
California has passed out from the do
minion OF old Mexico and is about TO be
assimilated into the United States. The
Rose of the Rdncho, already half an Amer-
can, her father having been a Yankee, is
ip love 9Th a st ilwart young emissary
from the Government in Washington. But
her mother, who resents the adv ent OF the
Americans in general land not without
reason, for her estate is threatened by
cpnscienceless land grabbers) forbids the
honest suit Of young keurney. II is the tale
Of Romeo IN Juliet, even Fridr Laurence,
the County Paris, the household servants
and the wedding dance having their mod
ern representatives,. But IL is Romeo and
Juliet" with a difference, for while the an
cient romance has its local habitation In
far away Italy of romance. this story is Of
our own people and almost our own time.
In its broader outlines it is the drama of an
epoch and a race.
Nothing could be more truthful than Mr..
Belasoo's outward reflection of the ancient
Spanish California. The Darling of the
Gods" was as false to Japan as it was to
the epoch OF the Samurai. The Girl of
the Golden West" got its atmosphere from
Bret Harte and the school Of popular melo-
drama inspired by his tales. But the case
is altogether different here. There we're
rhen in the audience at the Belasco last
Tuesday night who had lived among the
monasteries and the ranches of southern
California. and they were loud in praise of
the fidelity and power of the atmosphere
Of the play.
Peace re~igned-the peace of somnolence.
The musical prelude by William Furst
was heavy with the breath of the lotus.
The mission garden, disclosed by the ris-
log of the curtain, lay as il in a siesta. The
sky, incandesoent with sunlight, seemed
asleep like a schoolboy's top, with the
ecstasy Of fierce activity. Luxuriant roses,
red and white, overcome by their own
beauty and sweetness, lay prone on their
stems as if in a swoon. A cavalier, his guitar
iLnstrung, was outstretched OH a garden
seat Of stone, his senses thick with langlpr.
An old PRIEST bad dozed away as he sat at
his luncheon in an arbor.
From beyond a garden wall came the
droning OF passe rsby. A peasant girl
entered and s~lothfully filed her jar at the
well, crooking an arm 80 as not to disturb
the paroquet that dozed on it. Others came
in and woke up Don Luis and the Priest,
and 50 the story began to unfold. But the
more these people woke up the sleeper
seemed the life of which they were a part.
Mexico had ceded them to it's quo
hut their pride was unconquera ble and
they refused to admit a new ale giance.
Their lands were in danger, but though a
simple compliance with new law would
protect them they come the counsel Of
the agent sent put in their behalf.
Judniid, half American, is half awake, and
40 stands divided between her love for
young Kedrney and the instinct Of sub
n rvience to her mother in which she has
been nurtured. For two weeks she has
firted with him, fiirted idly, deliciously,
~passionately, the independence of her Saxon
blood abetting the lawless caprice of the
Spaniard. But when the test comes she is
obedient and her Anne rican,
sinking into the age old somnolence OF those
about her.
Even more than in his stage manage
rnent the genius OF BeIasco was manifest
m the acting of Miss Frances Starr, who
minor actress, who has only just made her
way into the regular theatres from stock
companies here and in Boston. Girlish
pcduIy oH0 hdu, uCuCdCy' ESIluciucuL, Sin
cerity. Now she has the spirit OF poetry
and passion, n a technique which though
still immature promises very soon to give
her firmness, even authority. IL is a trying
part. this, in which the traits Of the Latin
blend with those of the American, but Miss
Starr ran the gamut u%nerringly. and more
thar that, she lived the character. She
sang c~harmingly. she danced with Spanish
grace. She cajoled and caressed, laughed
and lowered, scorned and defied. Once,
81 the great" scene Of the second Of the
three acts, it was a question WHISTLER she
whs not wanting in the passion Of z
IL was a question, but the answer probably
whs that the moment itself was so lacking
in real greatness that to make the desired
Impression would have been to be false to
tSe part
For the construction Of this play is az
fitmsy and the writing as feeble as its out
ward guise is clear and compelling. The
second act is In the patio OF the ranch, at the
celebration Of the betrothal Of Juunta and
npn Luis. Here again visual reality and
beauty kindle into a single fame. The cos
49, - L-sMg--.I-