The San Francisco call., 1906-10-24
Crawleyin" "Gioconda'
Good, but Needs
Support.
BY James Crawford.

While Witnessing the performance
of Constance Crawley in ''Gioconda"
yesterday afternoon at the Colonial
Theater one could not help imagining
how distinctly beautiful the D'Annun-
zio drama would have been if the star
had been capably supported. 1t is
play whose proper presentation is de-
pendent upon more than one player
and Mrs. Crawley's exquisitely modu-
lated voice, giving each line its full
poetic value, seemed to accentuate the
defects of the other women in the
cast, one of whom shouted her words
while another's utterance was almost
inarticulate. And yet with all its handi-
caps the production was profoundly in
teresting.
In the studio scene, where the sculp-
tors wife (Mrs. Crawley) confronts his
mistress, the situation develops great
dramatic force, D'Annunzios compell-
ing words in the mouth of Gioconda
(Miss Wardour) making such fascinat-
ing logic that you find your sympathy
wavering between the rivals, particu-
larly when you realize that the wife
prevaricates. Nor do your well-wishes
entirely return to the respect
able channel until you learn that the
wife's hands are injured while she en-
deavors to save her husbands handi-
work from the fury of the other wo-
man. In the final act the hands of
the wife and mother are bandaged, and
when she yainly tries to lift her little
child the situation is pity-compelling.
Mr.. Maude's acting as the sculptor
was the best he has done here, and Mr..
Whipples part in the play was gloomy
enough to put to shame the Stanford
professor who complained that his Tes-
man in "Hedda GabIer' was farcical.
Miss Merle Maddern, whose first pro-
fessional appearance in San Francisco
it was, presented a pretty picture as
the child of the sea, and if her voice
acquires volume with experience as 1t
has acquired sympathetic quality by
training she will be valuable acqui-
sition to the legitimate drama
Reverting to "Hedda Gabler' at Stan
ford, the members -of Mrs. Crawley's s
company unanimously declare it was
not Mr.. Whipples acting, but the re-
ception of it by the students that oc
casioned the cause of complaint by the
professor of German. They say that
the boys did not relish the play, ap-
parently considering 1T too slow, and
when Tesman appeared and began with
appropriate intonation, Just fawncy,
Hedda," the audience rose to him as
blessed comic relief. Every word he
uttered after that was signal for
hilarious laughter from the fun-loving
youngsters in front
What can do-they are determined
to accept my work as low comedy?"
despairingly said the actor to the star
during a wait.
Let them laugh" was Mrs. Crawley's s
answer; for If they want to laugh you
cannot stop them
And laugh they did at everything
Tesman said or did
1t was the faculty that selected
'Hedda Gablerp to be played before the
students.
1t is not difficult to find reasons for
| the failure of Barbara Fidgety" to
score as much success as rewarded
some of its Weber-Fields predecessors
at the Davis Theater.
/ One of them is that the piece is a
burlesque on a drama that was pre-
sented here several years ago and did
not possess sufficient strength to main
tain an unbreakable grip on the
memory of the folk OF who witnessed
it, which all of the Davis clientele did
not.
Another is that chorus girls cannot
be transformed into actresses in week
or a month, especially actresses quail
fed TO give proper due to lines that
reek of subtle meaning. The signifi-
canoe of many a good speech IN Bar
bara Fidgety' is murdered by liability
on the part of the young womEn who
speaks 1t to exercise proper emphasis,
shading or pause.
There are several other reasons, but
those mentioned should suffice 10 show
why the really clever and conscientious
work of the principals does not redeem
the performance from mediocrity. Rice
and Cady never were funnier thin they
are in this piece. and Lily Suthsrland's s
| personation of the black nanny and
her singing of My Home is n Vtr-
ginia'' are joys forever. Mr.. Lynch,
too, has appeared to worse ad dTantage
than as the travestied Federal officer
And the dramatic force displayed by
Mr. Curtis is as surprising IS 1t is
helpful to the opening scene.
The staging and the chorus work
are adequate. 1t might be Improper
to even hint that the appearance of the
chorus respectfully trousered his any
thing to do with the failure of the
production to fully satisfy the heaters
regular patrons.