Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-08
LEAP YEAR
PLAY A HIT
BELASco AUDIENCE ENJOYS 1.-THE
THREE OF US"
MISS KATHERINE EMMETT MAKES
GOOD
After Two Weeks in UneongeniaI
Roles, New Leading Woman
at Last Comes to Her
Own
BY SIDLE LAMRENCE

1ntIG - llllS NODSOidtiOIs
the gentleman who sat next to me at the
Belasco last night, I'VE know it will come
out all right in the end" OF course it
did come out all right, but l shudder to
think what might have happened had this
not been the year of our Lord 1853, for
Rhy MacChesney had to exercise her leap
year prerogative and propose to Stephen
Townley before the tangle resolved itself
into the customary tableau of leading
woman tightly elasped in the leading
mans arms for the final curtain.
1t wasn't ar easy thing, that proposal
because IN the third act Stephen had been
so ungallant as to apply to Rhy that GER
tain presidential epithet of four letters
which has occasionally startled old school
diplomats of late, and which, in official
circles, usually is redressed with a blow.
And StepHen didn't take 1t back, either;
not even after ne found ne had been mis-
taken; but he took the girl, when she
asked him, which perhaps is the amende
honorable enough for a Nevada mining
camp.
Not a western" Play
Rachel Crother's THE Three of U.s."
presented at the Belasco this week for
the first time in Los Angeles, is by far
and long the most interesting play the
Belasco management has given us in
many weeks. 1t has been termed a west
ern play; but it isn't western, in the usual
acceptance of the term. here are no
cowboys, no Indians, nothing that we
usually associate with western plays.
True there is supposed to be a gold mine
somewhere about the premises, but a
gold mine is not necessarily western. The
first ones in this country believe, were
discovered somewhere in the Carolinas or
in Virginia.
However, western or not, "The Three
of Us" tells a mighty interesting story
and tells it well. Its characters are real
men, women and children; and the de-
velopment of the plot is managed llatur-
ally and smoothly.
Rhy is a healthy, straightforward ca
pable, lovable girl; Glen is a youth who
makes you regret that he is a year too
old TO be spanked and to have the spank
ing do any good; Townley is a straight
forward. manly young lover, with nothing
heroic about him and for this, II for moth
Ing else. we could forgive the playwright
much where there is much to forgive.
Then there is Louise Berresford, whose
villainy Is of so Indifferent a dye as to
be worth scarcely the name; Sonny. just
a boy; Maggie, jewel of an Irish ser
want and others who don't so much mat
Ter.
Miss Emmett Makes Good
Naturally the chief interest last night
conferred about Miss Ka,Aerine Emmett, |
who, in Rhy, finds the first real oppor-
tunity of her local engagement. And |
the Belasco's new leading woman was
not found wan ting. She handled the role |
with convincing naturalness in its tenser |
bringing an almost maternal |
solioitude to the scenes with Glen, and |
dainty coquetry to that first love scene
with Stephen, that proved very appeal
ing. There was, as there should have
been, touch of the ingenue about her
work. and whether she will be equally
as successful in more mature roles, re-
mains for the future. Last night, how
ever. was hers, and she made the most
Of it.
Charles Ruggles too, does an unusu-
lilly fine piece of acting in Glen. A dis
agreeable, unwhipped boy this, redeemed
1t the last, however, through a tactful
appeal to his fraternal love, which,
hough not dead, had been so soundly
asleep during the first three acts of the
,lay that it may justly be said to have
nored outrageously.
AS for the others, Lewis S. Stone plays
rownley with his accustomed virility.
Harry Glaciers finished acting again is
evidenced in Berresford. Miss Eleanor
,arey makes of Maggie a character that
S a genuine delight and Master Peter
1lancey plays Sonnie right up to the
handle, as he himself might express it.
In fine, THE Three of U.s." is an in
erestlng play, well staged and capablyl
cited. If you can go to the theater and
njoy such a performance you've no
to 20 to theater at all