The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-08
THEA TRICAL LETTER
 OF FRANKLIN FYLES


 theatre in the afternoon or evening On three of the Broadway stages plays were newly introduced. Of these, Jose Echegary's "El Gran Galeoto," in new English wording named, The World and His Wife" got the soberest attention: for its author looms big in modern Spanish literature. Besides that, he Is so much of a politician that his Queen sent him into exile, and Tor years he lived in Paris; and while there he wrote this piece. which was acted here in a translation by Maude Banks in 1899. A year later. John Blair had a go at 1t. Now William Faversham presents a free and originative version by Charles Frederic Nirdiinger. l imagine that Echegary, observing that nine in ten of Paris plays. from tragedies to farces. were plotted on the familiar French triangle of adultery undertook to vary the monotony by a triangular formation with guiltless wife, her unjustifiabiy jealous husband and their strictly honorable young friend, an inmate of their household The theme of Echegary's drama is not a Jason, but the social evil of slander. He has the husband listen with care less incredulity at first to the gossip that says the friend is his wife's para mour; but suspicion, credence anu finally jealous rage ensue; and the climax is his death as the result or duel with one of her calumniatora This variant of the old French trio ia new with its Spanish exposition of baueful gossip.
 In the earlier trials of "El Gran Galeoto," in English here. the husband was the more salient character; Eoen Plympton and Arthur Forrest played him in an Ibsenian spirit; but William Favershan, in taking up the play for a more popular theatrical appeal mas had 1t so shaped and hammered anew by Charles Frederic Nirdltnger, that the calumniated friend IS the nero yef in putting himself into that role Faver- sham hasn't sought to belittle the nus band. nor the wife. He would hardly care to weaken the wife anyway, as inc Julie Opp who protrays her is Mrs. Faversham. believe that Faversham has set out, like several other Americans actors, to be new Richard Mansfield as self managed player with e repertory of serious dramas He starts very well witn 'sThe World and His Wife"
 A new play of less mind and more exciting matter is "Via Wireless. which agitates it's audiences with elec- tricity in two episodes. One is in PittsburR mill, where a huge cannon barrel of almost molten steel misses and sputters as e crane and trelley carry it from a furnace to an oil tank in which it is to be tempered. There has been a quarrel over this device, but for advertising purposes. I think. In a play now in town. '"The Girl and the Detective" is similar scene, which I described when 1t was new as a remarkable achievement; but in that show a huge block of white-hot metal was slowly lowered over spot where the hero lay bound; and the heroine. who had been lured to the
 mill by a william. loosei her lover Tn the nick of time. The suspense in ''via Wireless" is brainier yet not less intensely melodramatic; for the clash of honor and crime is embodied by a young naval officer, whose nap piness or misery depends on the sue cess or failure of the gun which he has originated and a scoundreT who plots to defeat the experiment and substitute an invention which he has stolen.
 The other big excitant in ''via Wire less" Is the one that gives the title to the play The stage is set to show by cross section a steamship rocking Tn a furious storm at sea. The singulari- | tv of the scene is that the hero, heroine | A nd william of the play are not on board this vessel, but are on a wrecked yacht thirty miles away. We see. instead Of | those more important characters. the | operator of the wireless telegraphic | apparatus on the steamship receiving | from the laundering yacht | and are wrought up to surprising tension of suspense while the bigger craft plunEes through the waves to the | f. ha affaCfnaIIY | dramatic use of mechanism from the receipt of the despairing messages Tn the small room to the big illusion or a tremendous storm outside. that have ever seen.
 What makes the title of ''The Boys md Betty" applicable is that Betty's husband takes his heart to another woman. while four young fellows give heirs to his wife. These are decent boys. though. and their love of Betty s comradic. not at all sexual. Their -ivalry is good humored. yet spirited md the play starts with agreeable ,leasantry. Betty does the homework 'or her husband a vain. glorious sing pr, in his plain quarters at Nice. and 1e contributes little money and no work; but the boys make a cooking pee on the occasion of her birthday
  gifts small in value but large in af- lection. The affair has hohemianistic aspects The boys are French paint ,r, an Italian sculptor. German musi- ,ian and A Russian poet, all unframed IS yet but with youthful vim that | becomes hilarious in celebration of heir Betty's natal day. The sing and | lance with other youngsters. including | girls, to make a stageful of slightly | for q musical comedy. At he outset, however, the frolic Is req Ionable. and a coherent story Is started without burlesquery.
 Marie Cahill personates Betty. Is Marie an actress? Surely she Is a .Alker with neat knack of very | quietly making every word count for ts fullest purport. She speaks the 1umor of her roles as though it were original and spontaneous. And she is balladist who. with a weak though dear voice. made a reputation sudden y by singing the experience of a cer- ain rural Brown who came down to own and had educational experiences rha at was six years ago. Since than h has been a tourist in the lead of a company. If you have seen and for rotten her, may recall her to your memory by telling you that she re- embles Mary Irwin In person. method md a natural gift of fun. though lack ng Mays breadth in all those partic- liars. Before Marie has been in the lew play ten minutes she is singing . ditty about ruraliat / who like