Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-09-19

wards--for Maggie, being thought to be
without charm has reached the ma
ture age of "a without finding hns-.
band. In the second act, just as the
six years are up John Is elected 70
parliament and marries Maggie who
has been helping him along all the
time. In the third act, he has risen
high. but is going TO spoil 1t all hY
clipping with a titled lady. In the last
act little Maggie is triumphant through
the familar device of causing the low
ers to see too much OF each other. sut
what gems of hunoi, character and
sentiment are strung on this slender
thread. 1t has been many u day since
London has seen a play so altogether
delightful. The thanks are due almost
as much to Hilda Trevelyan the Mag
gle of the piece, and TO Gerald Du
Maurier, the John Sfand. as 10 the
author himself. 1t was y great moment
for little Miss Trevelyslii, who hasn't
had such a chance before since she be-
came famous In Il night as the orig
inai Wendy in Peter Pan 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 ot the
Barrie touch, too, in some or his work,
but his novel Idols" with a drarnatiza-
ton of which by Roy Rorniman Miss
Evlyn Willard began her, career this
week as a manager of the Garrick. is
an early work, and nothing ii not melo-
dramatic. Would n charming woman.
in love with her husband, publicly de-
clare herself to be another mans mis-
tress in order to save the other man
from charge of murder and thus
pay the other man for having once
GA CT, ND % i- Z 60
hard to swallow that it hurts what is
In many respects a strong, well-made
play.
In any other hands than those of
SO talented an actor as Forbes Robert.
son, the character of the re-incarnatedi
Christ in Jerome X. Jerome's new play,
THE Passing 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 Fro
ham would have produced the play
years ago---it was written 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
and Jerome been able to agree upon
an actor suited to the part. No mat
ter how sincerely and cleyerly the
character may be drawn by the author
II It is orer-acted, il 1t is played with
q lack of sympathy and forcefulness or
without the exactly proper measure of
restraint, it is bound to be rcpellent
and arouse spirit of hostility insthe
audiece.
Forbes Robertson with his fine genius
and high ideals OF his art would find
1t difficult to approach such a part
with anything but reverence. To him
as to many of us the question of max
ing up into a facial image of Christ
was out of the question and in .Jerome's
play he has contented himself with
adding little white to his heavy mass
of hair. The play is in three parts
a prologue. play and an epilogue. IN
the prologue we see very fine crew
Of scoundrels, male and female, gather
ed together in a London boarding.
house. There is an old skinflint of a
proprietress, a scheming Jew, a young
miss with the loosest of morals. her
tempter. and II quarreling husband and
wife. In justice to the average London
clearinghouse it must be said that
this is quite an exceptional gathering
of "undesirables'' to find under one
roof. and it is very evidently case of
exaggeration on the part ofsthe humor-