Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-11
QUO VADLS'
is REVIVED
BURBANK COMPANY PRESENTS
OLD FAvoRITE
DESMOND AND BEAsLEY ARE AT
THEIR BEST
Drama Has Been Given an Elaborate
Production and Is an Unusually
Big Fifty Cents
Worth

Stanislaus STANCES dramatization Of
"Quo Vadis," first produced some seven
or eight years ago at McVicker's theater,
Chicago, was revived yesterday at the
Burbank, with William Desmond as VI
nicius, Byron Beasley as Petronius, Miss
Blance Hall as Lygia and John w. Bur-
ton as Nero. The revival was made upon
a scale seldom attempted by stock COM
panies. The drama is in six acts and
eight scenes and each of the eight is an
effective example of the scene-painter's
craftsmanship.
The STANCE version of "Quo vadis" Is
by all odds the best of the several dra-
matizations made at a time when the
book was in the flood tide of it's popu-
larity. 1t is a cumbersome thing to
stage and it is over long-it was six
clock before the final curtain fell upon
the matinee performance yesterday-but
there is ample atonement for these de-
fects. Ordinarily the book-made play Is
episodical. When it is not, the dramatist
usually finds himself compelled to take
numerous liberties with the authors
story. Neither of these things is true of
the STANCE "Quo Vadis," the action Of
which moves forward unhaltingly, while
the book story has been retained in ali
important essentials without change.
However, the play is not new to Los
Angeles and was even presented here on
one occasion in stock, several years ago
at the Grand Opera house.
Stage ElaborateIy Dressed
1t is task of considerable magnitude
properly to stage this drama and Man
ager Morosco deserves high praise for
the results accomplished. There are err
ors, of course, but they are fewer than
might be expected. One of these, howev-
er, Is so curious as to be worthy of re-
mark. In one of the scenes replica Of
the Venus di Milo occupies prominent
place on the stage. The scene is Rome, in
| the first century. The statue is shown
as we know 1t today. without the arms.
| Now this Venus was exhumed on the
| island of Melos in 1920, and while its date
| is supposed to be about 400 B. c., there
| Is no reason for believing that 1t was
known to the Romans of Neros time, or
| in fact to the Romans of any time prior
to the nineteenth century, either with or
without those much-discussed arms.
The acting honors of the revival are
| carried off by Mr.. Beasley. Mr.. Des-
mond, Mr.. Marks, Miss Hall and Miss
Esmond. Mr.. Beasley gives us a finely
finished portrait of the diplomatic Pc
tronius, a man whose plaything was his
politics in which defeat entailed death.
| His ridicule of Caesar, worded as flat
| terry Is excellently handled; and his ten
derness for Eunice, once Petronius dis
covers her love for him, Is admirably
shown. There, is however. a flaw in the
amber of his acting. The archaic dia-
logue put into Petronius mouth seems
| to find him i'll at ease. Otherwise the
Characterization is highly comemnda-
BILE.
Desmond at His Best
| Mr.. Desmond does finely as Vinicius.
| II Is in such heroic roles as this and in
such picturesque costuming that he has
made himself the idol of the Burbank's $
feminine clientele and he has had few
parts better suited to his abilities than
this one.
Miss Hall as Lygia, Miss Esmond as
Eunice and Miss Gilbert as Poppaea all
do good work; and the Chilo Chilonides
of Willis Marks is repulsively true to
the requirements of the role. Joseph dc
Grasse is In impressive Glaucus. Yester-
day afternoon marked Mr.. de Grasses
first appearance with the Burbank COM
pany, and his many friends in the au-
dience gave him hearty welcome.
Mr.. Burton as hero fails to show the
despicable cowardliness of the emperor.
He makes him an object of laughter
rather than of scorn, and this is fatal to
the effect designed. Warren Ellsworth
fails to realize the character OF Ursus
either physically or otherwise.
For the most part, however. "Quo va
dis is we'll played, elaborately staged
and finely costumed. 1t is an unusually
big fifty cents worth even for the Bur-