Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-20
PRINCE CHAP
is FINE PLAY
MASON AUDIENCE is GIVEN A
RARE TREAT
THE THREE cLAUDIAs CLEVER
CHILDREN
Edward Peple's Comedy Drama Suo-
ceeds In Presenting Upon the
Stage the Making of
Woman
BY j. s. LAWRENCE

line 1TlIlCS OIldD EuWdTu Geplt
has succeeded in giving to the stage an
intimate and delightfully."- dainty portrait
Of childhood budding into girlhood and
bIossoming into the woman. His story is
30 simple that 1t might be told in dozen
words. Its charm Is the wholesome charm
Of feminine youth and its appeal Is direct
to the heart of every grown-up who loves
children.
In the first act we are shown Claudia
at the age of five, sunbeam of child
quaint as children always are who have
been thrown much with their elders and
who have not known the companionship
of other youngsters. Loving and lovable,
knowing nothing of unkindness, this little
Claudia, tenderly reared. though In diff
f1cult surroundings. is as dainty little
miss as may well be imagined, q fairy
child of joyousness.
In act two the playwright presents Sec
ond Claudia, eight years old, showing the
influence of much masculine society in her
talk and viewpoints beginning to assume
household responsibilities, inquistive re-
garding subjects that daddy can explain
only with difficulty. A natural child is
this second Claudia, just such an elf as
some of you may be fortunate enough to
have in your own homes
Claudia, the Woman
Then in act three is shown the awaken
ing of this child into womanhood. Ten
years have passed and Claudia is now
eighteen, the golden age of feminine ro-
nance. Her hair has been done UP and
her skirts let down; and with these out
ward and visible signs has come an in
ward and spiritual awakening. The girl
passes before your eyes and the woman
takes her place.
In penning his last act Mr.. Peple con-
ceded much to the popular demand for a
1s.arx INtra III los "a
lost in artistry what it has gained in
popularity. Probably, however, the con-
cession was necessary. Without 1t 1.-The
Prince Chap" might have~gone into the
long list of artistic failures"
A less adroit writer, or less syrnpa-
thetic, would have wrecked his bark on
the rocks of this final act. Mr.. Peple
has not done so. He has wrought an
unnatural ending for his play so skill
fully that we almost lose ear of the
menacing breakers.
Here is a man, an artist upon the
threshold of a career. To him comes a
woman. broken in health, very near her
end. She has been a model until the
great white plague so wasted her outer
shell as to make it no longer of service.
Her child, Claudia, aged 5, is her only
possession. On l,er knees she pleads
with the man to assume the care of her
little one. In the end he consents and
the woman dies.
Claudia, the Child
Then the little one comes in; Is told
that mamma is asleep and takes her
place as member of the artists little
household
Three years pass The girl of 8, still
in the old surroundings, now knows that
God was good to her mother and took
her home, where she will never cough
again. Claudia has grown to love the
artist, the Prince Chap of one of his
own lrue-fairy tales, with childish af-
lection already inclined toward jealousy.
The Prince Chap, in this true fairy
tale was very much in love with q
beautiful princess Princess Alice; but
when Princess Alice comes to see him
she has heard ugly stories connecting
the name of the Prince Chap with that
of the dead mother and she demands
that the artist give up Claudia as a
condition precedent to their marriage.
The man refuses and the woman goes
her way.
Claudia Is Eighteen
Ten years elapse. Claudia is eigh-
teen. Fame and It's corollary, for
tune, have come to the Prince Chap
His hair has whitened slightly at the
temples, but his laugh is youthful as
ever, his heart as young. Princess
Alice returns, a widow, bent upon re-
suming her old place in his regard, but
fails. This and the question of "Uncle
Jack" reveal to Claudia that her love
for daddy" has passed and has left in
its place another and different kind
of love.
This is dangerous ground and only
the consummate skill of the author,
coupled with the fine perception of the
players, saves the climax from appear
ing unnatural and theatric.
AS the Prince Chap Cyril Scott gave us
last night on the Mason stage one of the
most likable stage personages 1t has been
our good fortune to meet In many day.
He did not act He was. We in Los
Angeles have seen nothing more tender
than his treatment of the littlest Claudia;
nothing finer than his answers to the lit
tier Claudia's embarrassing questions, or
his romps with her. And In the crucial
act, where a single misstep would have
spelled disaster, the artistry of the player
made us forget, for the time, the threat
ened contretemps.
The three Claudias are played by Beryl
and Helen Pullman and Gertrude Barrett.
do not know who is responsible for their
training but more thoroughly natural
youngsters / have never seen upon the
stage. The big moments of the play all
come when one or the other or these
girls holds the stage alone with Mr.. Scott,
and not once were they found wanting.
of the audience for princess Alice" when
sympathy already had been aroused for
the role by the Prince Chaps true fairy
tale. Miss Ida Stanhope makes the charac-
ter hard and unyielding; too hard. per-
haps, upon her first entrance, in the sec
ond act. A more deliberate transition
from the princess of our imagining to the
princess Of reality would be more eff
fective.
Clever character bits are contributed
by Katherine Reeves as a Dickens slavey
and by Cecil de Mile as a conventional
Engilshman with the inevitable monocle
and inability to see a joke
There are good lines in 1.-THE Prince
Chap" many of them. One of the best
is an artists epitaph for Claudia $
mother: 'I WISH" he says, ''she might
have had a better hanging" In another
place the slavey asserts proudly that she
has the artistic temperament "Mr. Jack
said So" she explains. HE said, Puck
ers, you can live on nothing and YOU
don't give three whoops in HeII'"
The parents of Dunane Wagar. who
plays an artist in the piece and plays his
part well. reside at Ocean Park and in