The Washington herald., 1907-03-17

~HE week at the local playhouses
has not been q brilliant one,
taking it all around. There was
only one dramatic offering, IN
the Bishops Carriage" and. in spite of
all the tinkering that has been done 70
the play, it is, after all, only a near-sue-
cess. So many of Mr.. Claiming Pollock's s
plays have been like that. He has some
brilliant ideas, and some of them he
works out successfully, but. generally.
there seems TO be something-one hardly
knows what-Iacking. His best and most
successful dramatization was The Pit
in which Wilton Lackaye starred for
two seasons, but though it was a stirring
rather melodyamatic play with plenty Of
action. it is extremely doubtful whether
without the strong personality Of Lack
ave it would have met with the favor it
received. His Little Grey Lady of last
season was another play that had atmos-
phere. and characterization, and plot, but
there was a subtle something needed
without which it fell short. In collabora-
ton with another newspaper man Mr..
Pollock seems TO have made a pretty
good play in Clothes and those who
have seen the manuscript of his dramati-
cation OF THE Secret Orchard. which
will be produced next autumn, say nice
things about it.
.Tn the Bishops Carriage" is by way
OF being. a strong play, but it suffers the
inevitable fate of being compared with
Leah KIeschner," which was done so
well by Mrs. Fiske. and it is not strong
enough 90 bear the comparison. Then,
too the cast, adequate enough as it
stands, is not to be compared, on the
whole, with the cast which presented the
play AT first Miss Jessie Busley fits the
part of Nance much more suitably than
little AIable TaliaferO did, but good actor
ac Byron Douglas is, he cannot be COM
pared to Arthur Byron, and it is a pity
that Mr james Keene. who is now play
ing the part OF Edward Ramsey, could
not have seen how skillfully the same
work was done by Grant Stewart.
The objections that are leveled against
"ln the Bishops Carriage" may with
equal justice be applied to -FoTty-fve
Minutes From Broadway" at the New
National, which has little to commend il
10 public favor save the fine work Of Miss
Fay Tcmpleton and that of Victor Moore
in his cleyerly-conceived character of
Kid Rurns Outside Of these two parts
the play Is nothing; a mixture Of melo-
drama and farce, Illuminated and saved
from dreauness only by the Interpolation
Of three clever songs.
The Tourist" at the Belasco, bore Un-
mistakabIy the stamp Of the Shuberts
only it is less clean-cut than many OF
their musical shows. The plot Of tho
piece is utterly confusing and incoherent
1t had a long run az the Majestic Theater
New York at popular prices largely be
cause the cast was so much better than
il is now. Julia Sanderson headed il
then: the chorus was much better and OF
the principals only Richard Golden and
Fred Frear remain. Golden tries hard IL
be funny, but perhaps he tries too hard
He has some humorous lines 10 speaz and
some lUdicr0us situations, but he keeps
the experienced theatergOers thinking
how much better some other actor could
play the part.
Never mind, there is better veeE
coming
Miss Julia Marlowe and Mr. T. H.
Sothern have closed their New York
indeed. their engagement. and
on Thursday Of this week they sail fol
London with their company to prepare for
q London Engagement which viii begin
on April Is. In London they hope TO pro-
duCe Jeanne dare. Hamlet" Romeo
and Juliet" Twelfth Night and Haupt-
mams The Sunken Bell" In this coun-
try the Efforts of these players to live W
to high ideals have been treated with
marked respect and though we have felt
in some of their productions lack here
and there. there has been no very severe
criticism. Those whose task it is to write
about the drama IN America overwhelmed
by the rush Of foolish musical plays
deafened by the jangle of popular ditties
and bewildered by the childish eagerness
with which the public focks to see the
merry chorus girl, cannot fail to do what
is in their power to encourage the tendcn-
cies expressed in the plays that Mr
Sothern and Miss Marl1We produce. They
represent the highest ideal Of the drama
as II stands in America to-day; do much
TO keep alive the respect for the stage
whose highest function was defined by
Pope as
To wake the soul by tender strokes Of art.
TO raise the genius and 10 mend the heart
To make mankind IN conscious virtue bold
There are no other PLAYERS doing ex-
actiy Jhe same quailJy % work In PLAYING
Ia producing, and III stage managing. as
Mr. Sothern aud Miss MarlOwe. About Mr.
Mansfield's work there is always the sus-
picion that he is playing for his own
hand first and this feeling has been en-
HANGED since his productions of Don
Carlos" and Of Peer Gynt." The onIv
other player in the country who sticks
10 the classics is Robert MantelI, who Is
TO be in Washington this week.
The pity of this tendency away from the
best in dramatic work TO the meretricious
is that even the more cultured among the
public do not seem to care. but laugh with
the comedian over the Jest it would be
IF Mr.. Shakespeare came TO town.
Every one win hope that Mr.. Sothern and
Miss Merlowe VIII meet with great sue
cess, artistic and financial. on the other
side. but Il were idle to ignore the fact
that they viii be sure-especially in trag-
edy-to encounter much seEerer and more
scholarly criticism in London than has
been their lot here.
The question of the grewth Of tie drama
in America. away from the highest ideals
is one that must give thinking Inen pause
As the country grows. so has grown the
fl-r--c
is being devoted to the theater than ever
before. In many cities the theater build
ings are among the architectural beauties