Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-03

| Ye who have tears to shed, prepare to
shed them now, Camille" Is holding
forth at the Burbank This week, and
| the deluge.
Camille" is always good for the
weeps, no matter who may play it. 1t
| is almost as reliable as a TOM show
Fin drawing a crowd And young and
| tender maidens like nothing better than
a session in theater, where they may
pour out their sympathy for the be-
| draggled French cortesan whom
| Dumas immortalzed
Companies ranging from the worst of
the watertank one-nighterS on up to
Bernhardt have done it, in varying de-
grees of badness, and yet everyone
of them has found 1t standby par
excellence. And yet, for tawdry bathos,
false sentiment, stilted and mock
heroics, it is 'the limit
Perhaps, when Dumas penned it and
drew tears from the eyes of his father,
such actions and scenes were an ap-
Proclamation of reality; perhaps the old
mans weepers were hung on a hair
trigger; anyhow, ever since then it has
been the fashion to cry over the well
deserved retribution which followed
this cocotte, and to bewail her suffer-
ings just as If her sins did not bring
them on.
Hence, it was no surprise to find the
Burbank packed to the doors twice
yesterday when Mary Van Buren, por-
trayed the hollow voiced and tear-in-
spring heroine.
Naturally. the interest in this present
production of the Dumas drama centers
in the depletion of the frail Camille BY
'our Mary" This claims supreme at
tention first because not many i'm
agined that one so healthy, robust,
plump and altogether anti-consump-
tive could do justice to the harrow
ing appearance of the French lady.
"How will she manage it?" many
wondered all 'ast week, and curiosity
was quite on the qui vive when the
curtain rose on the last act yesterday,
to know the means whereby the result
could be accomplished.
Truth to tell, it wasn't a very wan
and pale Camille that Miss Van Buren,
depicted in most stages of the play. In
the early acts. she radiated health and
life. AS the action proceeded, she was
still as husky as ever, though her voice
did get as hollow as the most eager for
the horrific could desire. In the fourth
scene-the fete-she was so glitteringly
gorgeous in a sheen of silver gauZe,
with purple light playing here and
there over her topography, that one
forgot quite to note whether or not she
was as pale as yon silVern moon. Hence,
so far, the deception was really. not
inquirable The flush of her cheeks may
not have been especially hectic, but it
was there all right-as rosy as sun
set in June-and she even coughed lust
lily now and then.
But in the end she did it. How?
Don't ask a mere man. She had the
advantage of clinging draperies, which
as admirably conceal embonpoint as
they enhance extra slenderness. She
was duly white about the arms and
neck, and the flush was as busy as If
it were in a poker game. Her voice
was positively sepulchral, and its pity
drawing qualities were all that one
could have asked. Truly. 1t was
triumph, this subordination of the
glowingiy healthful Mary Van Buren,,
its absorption into a wan and meekly
pathetic sufferer and therein lay the
pretty actress great achievement.
The Camille Miss Van Buren, depicts,
by the way. is a very moderately
wicked one. She has subordinated
about all the siren in the sufferer. One
knows from the lines that she is, oh, so
wicked, but her atmosphere is that af
a nun in comparison with the Camille of
a Bernhardt. She is not flirt fiend,
a siren; she is a woman who loves and
is loved on womanly lines, just as II
she were good instead of being very bal
indeed.
Just whether or not tnls is etnlcdny
right, is hard to say. Shall Camille
make her badness so pronounced that
people go to see how bad she is, and
are influenced for good-perhaps-in in
verse ratio? Or shall she gild the
evil, and thus palliate the sin, and in
that way make 1t possibly the more
dangerous by minimizing the danger?
Leave that to the preachers; suffice
it to say that Miss Van Buren has
taken the latter tack, and her audiences
like her for 1T. Even in the death
scene, the horrors are reduced to the
lowest degree, and for this, many
thanks.
In support of Miss Van Buren, Mace
Greenleafs this week does his best
work. his Armand is ahead Of any
thing he has done hitherto. Bernard
as Duval pere is good. Harry Glazier
as De Varville is foreeful, and the rest
of the support is all that could be asked.
The play Is finely presented; the cos
tuning is elegant and the investment.
especially scenicany, reflects great
credit. In fact, Frank Kings work on
the scenery Is admirable.
Miss Estelle Chimmie, bright young
Los Angeles girl, has minor role and