Los Angeles herald., 1908-11-08

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| conferred; and unless they seem plaus-
| ible to the audience, during the mo
ment, at least, when they are being
enacted, the entire fabric of the play
will seem merely a matter of sound
and fury, signifying nothing Hence
we are confronted with the paradox
/ that melodrama must be even more
| truthfully plotted than those higher
/ types of drama which aim more ear
nestly at revealing truth.
"PIerre of the Plains"
A good contrast to 1.-THE Fighting
Hope" is afforded by pierre Of the
Plains" a thoroughly enjoyable and
admirable melodrama. This piece was
built and written by that skilful actor,
Edgar Selwyn, on the basis Of series
Of stories by Sir Gilbert Parker en-
titled pierre and His People; but
there is scarcely single feature of the
play that suggests the ordinary dram
| atization of novel. 1t presents
steadily ascending series of exciting
| situations, compactly constructed, with
| never an extraneouS depression. Ihe
thrilling circumstances of the swiftly
moving story are all naturally handled;
the characterization is simple and true;
| the dialogue is at ali points adequately,
| and at some points cleverly, written;
and the stage business of the crucial
scenes give evidence of visual imagl-
nation Of very high order. Characters
| that are real and true are reVeale1
/ through the medium of rapid action;
| the story stimulates suspense and con-
uuers credence; the audience is trans
| ported to the Canadian northwest and
| made to live vicariously life Of large
adventure during the two hours traffic
| of the stage. This estimable melodrama
| affords evidence of how much may be
effected by aiming level at a mark and
hitting it hard. 1t is better than many
more ambitious dramas, because 1t
| does not offer caviare to the general;
and on the other hand, it never for a
moment makes the judicious grieve, be-
cause it is conceived sincerely and exc
cuted honestly pierre of the Plains" Is
the best play which has yet been writ
ten about the Canadian northwest, and
is one of the most interesting dramas OF
! the present season.
Miss Crothers Disappointment
The main bother about promises is
that they demand fulfllment; and to
write first play OF extraordinary
promise is to place ones future, as 1t
were, in pawn. Miss Rachel Crothers
has done a very shallow and shabby bit
of work in "Myself-Bettina" and the
fact that in 1.-The Three Of Us she
promised very, very much, and in THE
| Corning of Mrs. Patrick" still promised
quite a DEAL makes it all the more dis
tressing to consider her apparent in
ability to redeem her pledges at the
present time. "Myself-Bettina" is
merely a making over Of Sudermann's
'Hetmat' Cknown to us as "Magda) },
with the story localized in a small New
England town. 1t is therefore scarcedly
| necessary to examine II In detail Inc
play opens with the dear old "dust-the-
| furniture" exposition, which was IA
vorite with Scribe and the earlier Sar-
dou. in days antedating the memory OF
| the oldest living graduate from the ex-
pedient There Is no note Of 1ndiVidu-
| ality about the characters; they are
types, instead of being people. Inc
| dialogue is written with none of that
subtle reality of detail which MISS
Crothers, by her earlier work, mad leo
us to expect from her. The heroine re-
| hearses a Salome dance, with the pur-
pose of performing 1t at church so
ciable, and seems surprised and palned
when the conservative congregation oD-
| tect to the proposal. Bettina pirates LOT
| two acts about her own broad mlnoeu-
ness and freedom from the obsesslon OF
| conventional ideals; and yet when her
Younger sister is detected In an lndls-
erection, she turns against the girl ana
priggishly berates her, while parson
of presumably narrow mind gives the
eirl the sympathy she needs The play
is false to the New England that 1t pre-
| tends to depict, and in no way exhlplts
a sincere envisaging Of life. II, indeed
the appeal of this piece was oeilpe-
rateIv directed at any sort of audience
whatever, the author must have aimed
it at that quantity of barren spectators
of whom Hamlet disapproved.
Strong on Temperament
There was plenty of criticism OF Ire,
Il, in taEIi9 Wife s
FAMILY" by Mrs Golding Bright, or, as
She prefers to call herself, George Eyer
ton. The piece gave genuine ana
| e-ra nl1ic presentation OF the volatility or
| the irish temperament. 1t exhibited the
ups and downs in worldly fortune OF
certain Irish family, who, whenever
luck was with them, cast their alIluehcS
TO the winds, ard whenever 1t turned
against them, managed by imaginative
| suhterfuges to extort living from
! their relatives and friends. The char
! acters~-were clearly and trIthfuliy de-
Melted. the dialogue was written Wlth
III. ction and with native wit; ana tne
prevailing humor of the piece was set
off by many sincere passages OF senti.
ment and pathos. His Wife's Family,
was a laudable bit of literature, but II
had no plot and very little action ana
| a never rose to the tensity OF true
dramatic action. 1t presented ire Ill
| recttv without conscious patternlnS OF
! ennIoynent of the usual expedients OF
emnhasis. For this reason 1t proved
caviare to the general.
satIrIzes Prohibition
George AIDE, In a boisterous one-act
comedy entitled MRS. Peckham's Ca
rouse y has satirized the epidemic or
nrohibition which is now sweeping over
manv sections of the United States.
Mrs. Peckham is a total abstainer ana
| the leader of a temperance crusade;
| Mr. Peclham occasionally uncorks
hottie on the SLY. A series of farcical
situations filings Mrs. Peckham INTO
faint from which she is revived with a
quantity of her husbands whisky SUM-
Gent to befuddle her faculties and
make her an ironical example or the
potency of the demon drink. Mr.. Ade
has adorned the dialogue with his usuai
| fresh and racy humor, and contrives
10 create a great deal of fun in the brief
compass of an act
This little farce is now serving as
curtain raiser for 1.-THE Mollusc." A
second seeing of Hubert Henry dawes
dainty and delightful comedy conrrtns
previous impression that IL is py iar
the finest play Of this entire season. NO
one can afford to miss 1t who cares Tor
what is delicate in art.
"Samson" Loose Jointed
The greatest disappointment of the
nresent season is the four-act melo-
drama entitled Samson" by M. Henri
bernstein, the author of "The Thief"
L