The San Francisco call., 1908-03-16
CAST OF CHARACTERS
IN THE SOCIETY COMEDY
"Shan1"
BY Walter Anthony


manners. satires for the improvement
Of morals and of plays with a plain
purpose, we cannot, 1 suppose, have too
many. Sham therefore Is twice well
come. 1t is welcome for what it really
achieves as we'll as for what it prom
ises. 1t is a witty and clever satire on
fashionable make believe, protest
against the sham of life and a clean
story woven of material from the east
(New York;. where the shams are. and
from the west Cdaho). where they are
not, according to the plot. 1t promises
more than 1t fulfills, but the yoked
pens Of Geraldine Bonner and Elmer B.
Harris will be encouraged by the sue
cess Of their first attempt. and that will
do something, 1T may be hoped. of more
definite and lasting merit.
Sham" was played yesterday after
noon at the American theater, with
Florence Roberts in the leading role,
supported by good company. Man
agerial enterprise on the part of the
theater must be held accountable and
thanked for the opportunity of seeing
the piece, which had a sort of a tryout
few months ago in Los Angeles. 1t
must have required some temerity to
put Miss Roberts forward in comedy
role here In San Francisco, where she
is wont to be regarded as a sort of
champion Sapho.
She justified the choice of the piece,
however, and made her comedy points
easily and gracefully. She was entirely
convincing even in places where the
authors were not. Her art has, 1t seems
mellowed and softened and matured
since she was here last-not so long
ago, either-and if she has grown out
of girlish slimness she still has no need
to plead for credulity to accept her as
Miss Katharine Van Riper, 2S years of
age, of New York
The role depicts young woman of
the fashionable New York set, who
come is all that is left of couple of
fortunes which the play explains her
father spent before he died. She Is
harassed by debts. Bills accumulate in
her mail box like papers on the porch
during summer vacation. She makes
her stage entrance flying into her room
from the street to avoid ubiquitous
collector of rents. She has two aunts,
who reared her carefully in the world
OF sham. and they see only matrimony
as an escape from her debts. They
have picked out the man for her, and
the man in the case is eminently will
ing. He, j. Montague Buck. is the son
OF an Idaho mine owner who arrived
recently with his family in New York.
name on the left side and to dance He
is a good boy, but simple. His father
is good and simple. Katherine firts
with the lad, but changes her mind
about marrying him when she meets
the fathers mining engineer, who has
brains but no money to speak of. Tom
Jaffray is his name, and he, too, loves
Katherine. who reclprocates. He MAKES
her see herself in the light of dead
beat" whose card is her meal ticket" !;
"sponger." and generally no account
sort OF person. So she goes home to
reform. She refuses Monty" and his
millions and decides to sell string of
pearls for $4,000 that her grandmother
wore once. She tells her aunts what
she is about to do.
Why not marry .Monty'?" they ask
But Katherine prefers to sell the
jewels than sell herself, and tells them
SO; whereat, like two patricians, they
leave her, Mortified. But the Jewels
turn out to be paste. Her father who,
1t seems, used to "go some" had sold
the real pearls, after having a paste
set made in their place. Nobody
dreamed of such a thing and it re-
mained for poor Katherine to find it
out. The broker who tried to sell the
string tells the aunts about 1T and they
conclude that 1t is their duty to take
the pearls and pay Katherine for them
in order to keep the family skeleton,
as well as the paste gems, in the
| family.
! Word to that effect is received by
Katherine after she has dismissed
Monty" for good and has told the
mining engineer how bad she had
been. He puts his arm around her
! protectingly and is assuming all her
debts when the note comes from the
aunts conclusively proving to him that
he was not fool after all: that
Katherine was essentially and funda-
mentally honest and that the aunts
were excellent relatives to take the
burden of his future wife's debts from
| his shoulders.
| Such weaknesses that cumber the
play are sufficiently manifest in the
telling Of the story. Monty" Brewster
is an impossible chap and so Is his
| father. Monty's sister, Maude Buck,
walks In and out of scenes without any
apparent cause. The authors apparently
| presented her to the play for no other
| reason than 1t was necessary that she
] be given a coming out" ball in New
York. OF character portrayal there is
| little of real merit except that of
Katherine herself. She is a pleasant
and diverting impersonation and in the
competent hands of Miss Roberts is
most effective. Her fine imagination
fills up many blanks in the business
and the result is a real personifcation
and embodiment of an idea.
| Thurlow Bergen was Tom Jaffray
and might have been a mining man
. from the west. There were spirit and
| size in his work. The rest of the COM
pany is good and sham" will last the
week out easily enough. 1t is good,
/ clean fun and its lines, while stage
| struck sometimes, are always good
| English and frequently witty.