The San Francisco call., 1907-03-06
Nance O'NeiPs Acting
Shows Progress in
Finer Phases
By James Crawford

Nance O'Neil showed finer artistry in
THE Sorceress'' last night at the Nov
city Theater than 1 had come to regard
her as capable of developing.
Once upon time, in the salad days
of her histrionism, l hoped, with the
remainder of this town. that experience
would equip the young California
actress with keener susceptibility to
the nuances of emotionalism, but as
she came and went and came again
without relinquishing the crudities to
any emphatic extent 1 was forced to
lose faith in her promise and my own
Judgment. Therefore the advancement
she revealed last night restored early
hope, if ii did not bolster later i'm
preston. She acts with a nicer appre-
citation of the dramatic values than
she formerly possessed. That is to say
her art is better balanced. She has
evidently studied repression as we'll as
force, and has learned to intelligently
bestow both qualities. She no longer
startles by uncalled-for bursts of hys-
terra, but gradually works up to de-
manded intensity of expression and ac-
tion. At no time last evening did she
say or do anything that woman of
her simulated temperament would not
have naturally said or done If similarly
situated And that is really saying
something in tribute to Nance ONeils
artistic progress.
The play is characteristicaIIy Sardou
in it's dramatic surprises and climaxes,
and the story it tells is terrible ar
raignment of the Spanish Inquisition
1t opens with a mob clamor, and passes
from turbulence to fascinating at
mosphere Of Oriental mysticism. In the
second act comes the usual mutually
tender love scene. in which Miss ONeil
appears to decided advantage with an
adore who neither looks nor acts as
such 3 foil should look and act, and
then we have the Sardouesque climax
of the lovers fond adieu being al
most Immediately followed by her re-
ceipt of intelligence that he is to wed
another that very day. In act third
there is a great deal of dialogue that
would SAVIOR of superfluousness If sue
ceeding events did not prove it to have
been essential to their effectiveness. In
this act we are given the other kind
of a love scene-the woman passion
ately jealous and reproachful, the man
pleading, remorseful. Here, too, Miss
ONeil showed more self-control than
she was wont to show In such scenes in
past seasons. While she revealed all
the contradictory workings Of a fren-
zied female mind, she always had her
emotions within grasp. But it was in
loftiest power of expression.
The scene is the inquisition chamber,
and after the unjust trial methods of
the bigoted tribunal are graphically
demonstrated she is given the alter
native of confessing sorcery and in
viting immolation for life or having
her lover executed. She chooses the
former course, and then denounces the
Inquisition in the finest burst of dra-
matte eloquence I ever heard her read.
That scene won for her so many cur
tain calls that she was compelled to
deliver brief speech to quell the
clamor.
OF the supporting company the wo-
men are best Two of them, Miss Van
derveer and Miss Mayo, received indi-
vidual distinction by their work In the
fourth act. Mr.. O'Meara. the leading
man. is able in spots--as Miss O'Neil
herself used TO be-and Mr.. Scardon
as a Moorish muleteer In the first act
did some excellent reading.
Just why Mckee Rankin insists on
thrusting himself into pictures which
he mars rather than helps is explain
able only by the fact that he is in a
managerial capacity. AS the Grand
Inquisitor his embonpoint was accen-
tuated by his costume, his diction
was inarticuIate and he wore mus
tachei
Each of the five acts was staged
elaborately and with apparent regard
for historical accuracy.