Los Angeles herald., 1908-09-29
HE CAST

/ Peggy ThOne ............ Leslie Preston
Arthur Thone ................ George Farren
Timothy McCanD. ...,........ Harry spear
Richard Tretman. ........ Lewis 5. stone
Frederick McYane ......... Howard Scott
| The butler .................. Harry Oakes
BY C. NJ. EMERY
In 1.-THE Test" which received it's
premier at the hands of Lewis S. Stone
| and company at the Auditorium last
1 evening Jules Gckerti Goodman has
| given the world great play-one
which shall live long and bring to its
creator a goodly mede of praise,
i venture.
1t is a problem old as civilization,
which Mr.. Goodman has put into the
mouths of his players TO PROFOUND us
| the query whether the man who sins
against me moral codes shall be given
! chance to rehabilitate himself in the
! eyes of society and the world, while
| his partner in sin-no matter what the
| impelling motive back of her fall or
self sacrifice-shall not be given that
same fighting chance In the solution
of the riddle vouchsafed as to this par
| ticular play, the author answers as
would any one of his auditors at last
nights opening.
But it is not the problem alone which
makes the play; that is rather an in
| cident furnishing the theme. It is in
the careful yet strong and virile devel
opment of the characters; the mastery
telling of the story the brilliancy of
| the epigramic cynicisms, truthful for
all their cutting keenness-it is in these
things that the author has made for
us great play which is worthy of all
| praise.
The Story is Old
Quite old is the story, as 1 said, only
new in the way of its handling. Ten
| hpfnrp the nDpninp nf I11a
Dick Tretman has stolen money that
he might give the woman he loved
more than his meager salary as a clerk
would buy. When he is caught, the
| girl. ignorant till then of what he had
done, bargains with his employer
herself for her lovers freedom. The
libertine who has plotted Tretman's
downfall just for this purpose accedes
to the bargain, but after her payment
of the price allows the lover to be sent
to the penitentiary for ten years.
When the play opens the girl. Emma
| Eltynge, has been redeemed in a meas
ure from his first mistake by Arthur
Thone, young settlement worker and
writer on sociological topics. They are
in love, Thone and the girl, but with a
| fine sense of honor and the fitness of
| things learned, she says, from him, she
refuses his offer of marriage. Comes
| then Tretman, with all the stored-up
bitterness of those ten years in
prison-hell, strong with a purpose of
winning back the place he held in the
| world before his fall. They meet, he
in ignorance of her sacrifices for him.
| The battle of the mutual hates softens
| before the power of the truth, but the
| girl no longer loves him. Her betrayer
Is engaged to marry the sister of
| Thone.
To prevent this marriage, and the
unhappiness which she feels it will
assuredly bring to the sister of the
man she fairly worships, she tells Miss
Thone the whole awful truth of her
own downfall before her brother and the
betrayer himself.
Brought face to face with the real
character of the beast she was about
| tomarry, the sister withdraws, and
after a wonderfully strong scene, dur
ing which Tretman learns the COM
plete truth Of his early sweethearts
| sacrifice for him, Thone and the girl
are united, and Tretman goes out into
the world alone to win back that
esteem he has lost, the betrayer being
driven from the country through fear
of the wronged mans vengeance.
Woman Is the Star
Towering above the others head and
shoulders, yet not leading them in
cleyerness of drawing by hairs
breadth, is the woman of the slums,
who dominates 1t all To Miss Flor
ence Oakley the part is by all odds the
heaviest she has been called upon to
play. Running the gamut of human
emotions, yet all with an undertone of
| half suppressed bitterness, the char
acter calls for a wonderful finess in
presentiment as we'll as a fund Of re-
serve force. And through it ALL in
spite of but a weeks rehearsing Miss
Oakley did herself proud last night.
Curiously the strongest male char
acter is that of Tretman, though his
lines are brief and he is not the ira
ditional lead" at all Stone realized
this self-centered, long-suffering ex-
convict in the life Repressed through
his long years behind prison walls,
awkward though lack of contact with
the civilizing influences of the world,
he made of his Tretman a man strong
in resolve and purpose, despite his
early weaknesses, and impressed his
personality vigorously on his scenes.
| So fully, indeed, does Mr. Stone re-
alize the authors ideals that Mr. Good
man has begged Manager ]. H. Black
wood for the loan of him that he may
recreate Tretman in the New York
production of the play, which Is to be
made this fall with Blanche Walsh in
the part played here by Miss Oakley.
Players Are All Good
George Farren as Arthur Thone has
a part in which preachment were easy.
That he refrained does him credit. His
| Interpretation of the character is quite
! in keeping with the atmosphere of the
| play, though the part is but a feeder
| for the central figures. Miss Leslie
| Preston makes a real woman of the
| impulsiVe society girl who would marry
a rake to reform him, but who finds
out her mistake In time Also she
wears the beautiful gowns. To How
ard Scott falls the thankless role Of
the betrayer, and he plays it with all
the finish of man of the world.
There are several minor characters,
not essential to the telling of the story,
but colorful in its development OF
| these the young Jew peddler with a
genius for poetry allows Bennett South
ard a chance for a clever character bit
to which he responds nobly In make
up, department and reading the inter-
probation is distinctly credit to him.
Miss Beatrice Noyes has a small bit,
embracing but one real opportunity for
| good work, and in this, an emotional
scene, the young woman did herself
proud.
The play has been accorded a gen.
erous mounting, and 1 have seldom
seen a first night run as smoothly At
the conclusion of the third act insist
ent demands for Author! author!"
forced Mr. Goodman's appearance.
Stone brought him on, hanging back
and bashful as any schoolgirl. To the
| 1n1, l,A