The San Francisco call., 1908-07-27
SUDFRMANN'S PLAY
IS BRUTALLY FRANK
Nance O'Neil and Company
Make the Most of ''The
Fires of St. john
Acting Is Good, but Author
Shows Pessimism and
Lack of Faith
CAST OF CHARACTERS
\ HERMANN sUDERMANN's DRAMA.
"The Fires of st. John"
By Walter Anthony

1t would be a pleasure to refuse to
take The Fires of st. John" seriously,
and it would be quite possible, too,
If 1T were not for the third act, which
introduces with accustomed bluntneSS
the usual Sudermann sex episode-to
state the circumstance mildly. Suder-
manns pessimiSm and his lack of faith
in his fellows are never so apparent as
In scenes such as the one referred to-
where the imagination would be flat
tered, the vanity of his auditors would
be appeased and the sensibilities of
some who do not think the artistic
value of spade is heightened by SPELL
ing it correctly, would be saved from
violence by less brutal method than
the one which the playwright of gloom
employs. He will not leave you a sin
gle guess. but waves a club over your
head while he shouts what should at
the worst be only whispered, or, better
still, left unsaid.
MISS O'NEIL AS FEARFUL SINNER
For fear the fact be left unstated, it
were we'll to say here that "The Fires
of St John" by Hermann Sudermann
was produced yesterday afternoon and
evening and will be for the rest of
the week at the American theater, with
Name O'Neil as the fearful sinner and
temperamental heroine, and Mckee
Rankin as the inexorable master and
autocrat of the Vogelreuter breakfast
table. Be 1t said, too, that many wept
for Miss O'Neil as she unfolded the
story OF her gypsy heart and told of
the suffering of a famine child who
was torn from the drunken embrace
of an inebriated and thieving mother
and so brought into the Vogelreuter
home, only to fall. subsequently. In
love with the young nephew who, ac-
cording to all expectations, was to
adore the Vogelreuters' only daughter,
Trude. Also be 1t said that Mckee
Rankin did a splendid and lifelike
portrait of the Vogelreuter; that Nor
val McGregor showed accomplished
methods as the Sudermann parson;
George Woodthrope was splendid in
her character part of the gypsy woman,
who was mother to Marika, and that
the latter role, assumed by Nance
O'Neil, was all 1t should have been
and more. Finally, Monroe Salisbury
played the incomprehensibIe character
of the nephew with much intelligence
and energy-as well, in fact, as might
have been expected of any man of flesh
and blood in the United States.
STORY OF GYPSY BABY
The four acts transpire in the living
room of the Vogelreuters in Prussia
about 1880. Marika, an infant girl is
picked up by Vogelreuter and his wife
one night while they are on their way
home about IS years before the play
happens. The baby is cuddled in the
arms Of her gypsy and tipsy mother.
Marika becomes an adopted daughter
in the Vogelreuter home, and for her
keep and such love as is given her
does the servants work. Trude, the
real daughter. and George, the nephew,
are about to be married. when Marika
and George find how deeply they love
each other. The curtain on the play
by this time is up. Marika's mother
appears and finally gets her daughters
ear. Marika had been told her mother
was dead. Nobody knows anything
about her father. Marika is Mortified
at her mother. who is drunk and dis
orderly enough to try to steal some of
the fine linen that Is part of Trude's
trousseau. Marika gives her mother
some money and falls in Georges arms.
The bonfires of st. Johns night
ilumine the room and the curtain goes
down on a general confagration-so to
say.
That is the third act In the fourth,
Marika, after telling George that they
ARE one in the sight of God" decides
to make it two in spite of omniscient
gaze, and turns him over to poor Trude,
VINO is as yet 100 young TO know, ana
the curtain falls, leaving Marika gaz-
ing, like Cinderella, after the marriage
procession and promising to go far
away and never come back at all.
If that is what you like on the stage,
do not miss the show, for Miss O'Neil
Is excellent and gets her emotion to
you splendidly. But to me 1t seems
worse than futile and too commonplace
to be effective art.