Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-07-18
HER QUALITY
STREET FINE
MAuDE ADAMS SCORES AGAIN IN
OLD TIME PLAY
BARRIE COMEDY A DELIGHT WITH
HER INTERPRETATION
Whimsical, Fantastic, with Transi-
lions from Light to Shade, Humor
to Pathos, She Shines
Through 1t All

"Onality Street. in James M. Barrie
hrain was the forefather of Peter Pan"
And the child inherited all the tenden-
cies toward whimsicalities and fantastic
cleverness that the parent shows IN
embryo
yet EQUALITY Street" is intrinsically
more of a play than is it's offspring-tnat
is it possesses more of the technique OF
the stage. -
This is to it's credit, but it would be
vastly to the discredit of Peter Pan"
were the slightest bit more of stagecraft'
as SUCH permitted to obtrude itself.
Maude Adams gave us equality street
at the Mason last night. 1t afforded de-
cided contrast with her previous offerings
in that 1t permitted her to take very
lightsome, winsome role in skirts instead
of a boys part.
1t introduced US to new Maude Adams
the woman-side of her, and we found her
very sweet and lovable and delightful
AS a play. this Barrie effort is not flaw
less. 1t is based on the old device of mis-
taken identity, but of so barefaced the
atrical makeshift sort that it is 1mproo-
able-nay, impossible.
But it has atmosphere; it takes one i'm
mediately into the days of patchoull; and
harpsichords, and spinsters, and over
whelmingly ridiculous modesty, and pam
taettes, and lavender, and old lace
1t translates us into that early nine
teenth century world of primness and
sanctimony which hedged woman ABOUT
SO severely that it makes the free ana
easy folk of now wonder that girl ever
dared love a man or that lover ever
found courage to batter down the walls OF
conventionality and besiege the maiden
citadel of feminine heart
1t watts us into the sentimental-when
sentiment was dealt out in huge gobs and
was of a treacly, sticky consistency. as
slow of motion and as sure of lasting as
is cold molasses on a wintry day.
So very large audience found Quality
Street" an unmistakable delight. 1t is
Kaleidoscope melange of pathos and
mirth, humor and tears, laughter and sad
ness, sentiment and bathos.
1t requires a rather strong imagination
once or twice to admit the Barrie prem
Uses: but then so much of his writing must
be taken on faith anyhow that this is to
be expected.
There are touches about the play that
are wholly delightful-the school, for in
stance, that the Thrassel sisters establish,
and their difficulties with algebra when
Phoebe says pathetically: "Oh, it's when
YOU Sdy tQuetiS anu Cpuoio a.
and you know in your heart all the time
that they're not equal'-the children-the
sewing party of old maids, so remindful
of Crawford and our grandmothers-the
military ball and Phoebe's impishness-
these atone for all else, amply and fully.
So that even coldly critical eye after
all is satisfied and a calmly judicial mind
says that if equality Street is not quite
equality" it very nearly so.
Miss Adams in skirts as Phoebe is
Maude Adams. The hoydenish features of
her boyhood days give way to demure-
ness just as fetching, but voice, facial ex-
preston, gesture, are all discernible, and
the personality of the star is never lost.
Her fantastic spritely comedy style is
at it's best, and her quick transitions to
paIhos are unerring.
No one can appreciate how much she
does to make the comedy go because she
z SO thoroughly permeates the role, but one
would hate to see equality Street" with
out Maude Adams in it,
Ida Hammers portrayal of Susan is
charming, natural and consistent, and the
other women are generally in the picture
Only one man really counts, the returning
officer, done by Ernest Lawford. He is as
good in this part as he was bad in
"L'Aiglon' and almost up to his superb
standard as Mr.. Darling and the Pirate.
In the main the scenes are good, though
glaring anachronisms are noted now
and then-such as Japanese lanterns at an
English fete early in the nineteenth cen
fury!
The avowed purpose of equality Street.
was to provide Maude Adams with a role
which would reveal her gifts for winsome,
sweet comedy. 1t does more; it shows
what real genius can do to rejuvenate an
inherestly conventional drama bordering
perilously near at times to the mawkishly
sentimental.
That she clothes it with the mantle of
truth and makes it seem real is Miss
Adams own personal triumph