Omaha daily bee., 1908-09-20

strung on this slender thread. 1t has been
many a day since London has seen a play
so altogether delightful. The thanks are
due almost as much to Hilda Trevelyan,
the Maggie of the piece, and to Gerald du
Maurier, the John Shand, as to the author
himself. 1t was a great moment for little
Miss Trevelyan, who hasn't had such a
chance before since she became famous in
a night as the original Wendy in Peter
PAM one was almost sorry for her as
the curtain rose on her again and again,
for she so evidently wanted to rush off to
her dressing room and have a good cry for
sheer joy.
w. J. Locke has something Of the Barrie
touch, too, i'm some Of his work, but his
novel, Idols" with a dramatizatiOn of
which by Roy HOrniman Miss Evelyn Mil
lard began her career this week as a man
ager of the Garrick, is an early work and
nothing # not melodramatic. Would a
charming woman, in love with her husband,
publicly declare herself to be another mans
mistress in order to save the other man
from a charge of murder, and thus pay the
other man for having once saved her hus-
bands life? IT is so hard to swallow that
it hurts what is in many respects a strong,
well made play.
In any other hands than those Of so tai
ented an actor as Forbes Robertson, the
character of the reincarnatcd Christ in
Jerome *. Jcrome's new play, The Pass
ing of the Third Floor Back" at the St.
James theater, would have been doomed to
failure. Indeed, | know as a matter of
fact that Charles Frohman would have
produced the play years ago-it was writ
ten many months before the production of
Ram Kennedy's The Servant IN the
House which evolves from much the same
idea-had the American manager ana Jer-
ONE been able to agree upon an actor suited
to the part. No matter how sincerely and
cleyerly the character may he drawn by the
author, II il is OveT-acted, IL IL is played
with a lack of sympathy and fOrcefulness
or without the a2actly proper measure OF
restraint, il Is bound to he repellant and
arouse a spirit OF hostility in the audience.
Forbes Robertson, with his fine genius
and high ideals OF his art, would find il
difficult to approach such a part with any
thing but reveranCe. TO him as to many OF
US the question Of making up into a faCiaI
image Of Christ was out Of the question
and in Jerome's play he has cQntented him
! self with adding a little white to his heavy
mass Of hair. The play is in three parts
a prologue, a play ana an "pllogut' IN the
prologue we see a very fine crew Of scoud-
rels, male and female. gathered together
in a London boarding house. There is an
old skinflint of a proprletress, a schemlUl
Jew, a yong miss with the loosest OF NOR.
ais, her temper, and a quarreling husband
and wife. In justice 10 the average Londor
boarding house it must be said that this IL
quite IN exceptional gathering OF "upde
sirables' To find under one roof, and il j.
very evidently a case of eXaggeration on
the part of the huromist-dramatist.
Into this den OF righteousness comes
in the play-thc Spirit Of Christ, working
through the new ladger in the little room
on the third floor back, and on each OF IN.
sinners in turn he works his magic. TIL.
Jew becomes an honest man, the proprie
tress a model landlady, the girl a good, tru.
woman, her father and mother a recon
ciled and thcy-lived-happIl -evor-uttrr
wards couple. In the e~pilogue We discuye
them an leading their regenerated lives
and on this happy result the curtain de
scends. JOHN AVA CARPENTER,