The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-17
GILLETTE IN HIS "CLARICE."
4 CHARMING ONE ACT COMEDY
EKED OFT WITH MELODRAMA.
GuIctte, Miss Marie DOrO and Lucille La
Verne as an Old Nanny In ENquIsltely
Perfect Comedy Enter the woman
ScOrned and Villain Lover, Besides.

Verne as an Old Nanny in ENquIsitely
Perfect Comedy Enter the woman
ScOrned and Villain Lover, Besides.
During the long first act OF "Clarice"
yesterday evening at the G~Rrrick-it lasted
ell but an hour-Mr. Gillette occupied a
most distin guished place among the mod
ern writer's OF real sentimental comedy,
A single circumstance prevented one from
believing that he occupied it for good
and that was the fact that the play was
ouite complete with the falling of the first
curtain. Jack had his Jill, and nought
had gone i'll. Not even a right minded Puck
could mar the perfection OF the sentimental
idyl.
But the programme said that the play
was "A comedy drama As it proved, we
had had about all the comedy. The re-
naming three acts were indeed comedy
drama Of the world old and stage weary
fashion the comedy OF which was carica-
tire and farce and the drama melodrama.
LEI MS dispose Of this ~protracted tale which
vagged the diminutive canine OF comedy
as briefly o. possible.
Dr.. Darlington, a convalescent invalid,
loves and is loved by his ward, Cldrice. In
his earlier wears the girls aunt has thrown
herself al his head-and he has lodged.
Now a Washington doctor. Denbeigh, is in
love with CIdrice. Finding how matters
stand the woman scorned produces a plot
even she describes it as the kind that grows
in the theatre-to convince Darlington
that his malady OF the lungs. instead of
being cured, has reached the fatal and
infectious stage. Den5eigh consents. Car
rjncion assumes the familiar attitude OF
self-sacrifice, sends C'Gri-e we and in
stage despair takes poison. But the girl
has a moment of sanity and the doctor a
et the point of death the two revive him
with a hypodermic injection.
It il not a likely story, and far from a
lovely ono. And it's painful artifciality
Is a long way from being relieved by many
~ calculated stunts of comic relief, in which
all IDEAS Of truth and character are thrown
tothe winds. A house which had been reused
to enthusiasm by the perfect first act went
cold and colder. 1t 10 true that Mr.. Gill
lette is always Mr.. Gillette. What his ex-
pert stagscraft, appealing personality and
power Of restraint in acting could do was
done. But, first and last, these acts were
actor made. Devices long dead n done
for specially. stalked the stage.
And yet through II all fingered the
fragance the vernal intoxication, of that
first long hour Of idyllic truth and senti-
ment. There was not a touch OF the melo-
dramatic intensity, the gripping nervous
strain Oh DS lOUk ldulllldI IldLilcls VIZ
Gllette-dressed all in white for a Southern
summer-had all the wholesome languor
Of the Convalescent, infused with the more
wholesome sweetness of returning health
and spirits.
His girl ward. a grown woman. was by
his side. Miss Marie Doro has never been
more charming to look upon, and has never
acted with half such skill and appealing
sincerity. One saw the womAn's passion
awakening in her, and grow by happy
han,Ag a1 FhA noGatOn IF fhA mar rnGnnndAd
to it. The cloud came-which later de-
veloped into such a sloppy storm-but as
yet it was only enough TO make the lovers
conscious of their love and happy in the
shelter and delight it brought them.
Not the least delightful incident Of the
idyl was C~drriRgton's negro nanny,
Lucille La Vernel, tender and domineering
by turns. and always true, always lovable.
Later she became-but that was as II in
another play.
1t is no news that Mr.. Gillette knows how
10 make love. He has never made love
more c~onvincingly, more ~poignantly n
less in the glamour of the spotlight than IN
this first act. What kc said was simple,
laconic and musioally sweet. What he did
not say was a poem. II is true that even
here he wandered into the old way Of self
sacrifice. But az the passage was written,
and most Of all as he acted II, it was the
acme of freshness and truth. One little
incident Of "A rose, the climax Of the act,
was a masterpiece of convincing invention
or rather OF d%ivination. 1t shall not be
here deAowered by analysis. 1t must be
seen 90 he felt, and il is in itself amply worth
a visit to the GarriCk.
The scene OF the first act. which. with
the exception of a single brief passage in a
Southern hotel, persisted throughout. was
nothing snort OF a marvel Of beautiful stage
realism. IL was a mans room, spacious
and comfortable, exquisite in atmospheric
suggestion and delicately beautiful in color
ing. Through wide open windows one
saw a garden stepped in the realest OF sun
light. There was the hushcd song OF sum
mer birds, and, far away, the rumble OF a
train Increasing slowly and slowly diminish.
ing, with even distsnce-muffied sound OF
the wn!stle to give the impression OF aerial
space. II was a thing which has been done
a thousand times, and done badly. Mr.;
Gillette has ions it with perfect. mastery OF
suggestion.
adelaide Prince played the woman
scorayd, and played it with a restraint
and intensity worthy Of a better cause.
Francis Carlyle, as the medical villain, was
milarly successful. Stokes Sullivan did an
incidental part well. and upon Frank Bur
heck. shoulders fell the burden OF an i'm
ugsSiblp comedy" character.