Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-23
RY w. HERnERT RLAKE

Antoinette ...-..............Ca Carol Marshall
Lady Elmira wynn. Madeline Del Mar
Miss Lestrange. ............ .EanchOn Lewis
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
"The Morals of Marcus" is a true So
cial comedy. The characters educate
each other. Carlotta transforms sir
Marcus from a domesticated anchorite
into domestic anchor. And Sir Mar
Gus helps the little Syrian waif evolve
from a hamadryad into a woman. The
same subtle link binds the minor char
acters to the major. His proprietary
aunt begs Sir Marcus to get married.
He goes and does it, although not after
her fashion or with her choice for him.
Still, she made the suggestion. Their
characters impinged at that point, and
the playwright made the conjunction
tell for drama.
This interaction of the roles was
more clearly visible in the Burbank
stock production of William j. Locke's
play yesterday than in the local prem
iere by winsome Marie Doro and her
company. The principal reason for this
surprising fact is that A. Byron Beas-
ley enacted the title role Mr Beasley
aid not look the bOokworm to any bib
biographical extent in the first act, 1t
is true. He was far less technically
accurate than Edwin Arden, in the
former production. He struggled man
fully with the polysylabic profundity
which the playwright has put into the
lips of Ordeyne, the historian of me-
dieval morals He was only intermit-
tently scholarly. Now and then he
even stumbled in his lines.
None of these things did Mr.. Arden.
And yet Mr.. Beasley surpassed that
veteran actors Interpretation in the
simple and overwhelming detail that
he made Sir Marcus a man, while Mr..
Arden was content to make him prin-
cipally personified erudition. True, the
play. in a sense, is the Vindication OF
the scholar. But it is such merely be-
cause the scholar proves himself TO
have a heart, a will, a capacity for an
ger and for love, for grief and scorn.
All these Mr. Beasley gave his Sir
Marcus yesterday, and despite some
elaring flaws in pronunciation and
personal presentmcnt, he gave us a
view of Mr.. Locke's hero which was
new and true. We met the real Sir
Marcus-the soul of him, shining
through outer discrepancies of method
and we were riotously glad when he
shook off the cerements of bookish
girl" as my friends in the gallery
would say. In the case of Mr.. Arden
we were merely mildly Interested, not
enthusiastic. Miss Doro monopolized
our admiration, and we thought sir
Marcus was mighty lucky to get Car
lOlld anu uihAA 'AeNAH
This ring of reality was the more
welcome yesterday because the play
actually is very thinly Veneered melo-
drama. The veneer is of sheer fantas-
tic fairyland-rather atmosphere than
action. the atmosphere of the charac-
ter of Carlotta. The things that hap
pen are of the stuff of dreams and
shilling shockers. The way they hap
pen is the way of poets and melo-
dramatists. In the last two acts, par
ticuIarIy. in which Mr. Beasley played
with a firm. yirile dignity which swept
us of our feet in instructive approval
inst as we rise at the playing of THE
Star Spangled Banner was the
strength of the Burbank's new Leading
man felt as it could not be last week
i'm lack straw" 1t is a strength that
ought to reach its climax in THE Great
Divide"
strikingly and amazingly accurate
was Miss Halls enactment of car
lotta in the first act-even to accent
and tone recalling with not little Wv
idness the creation of the part by Miss
Doro. Miss Hall lacked, to be sure
that quaint elfn quality with WhlcF
the other invested the little Syrian,
The woman was only yelled IN the
child, and Sir Marcus whimsical sug--
gestions of salamanders ana Woou
nymphs rather augmented our agree
mad as a "dingo dog"-baleful insult!
In the later acts, also. there were mo.
,pents when Miss Halls assumption OF
Youth showed symptoms of arttnclallty'
Her recitation of the lines, you 90
mo GREAT honor" could safely be
drawn out with rather more of the
Doro drawl, even to the point OF uh-
conscious satire. This Imperfect pof-
travail of the frolicsome note in car
lotfa's character made her surrender
of Sir Marcus on the plea or her rlNal
less credible than it would have peeh
as the impulsive act of Verltahle
child. although the same adventurous
maturity helped the portrayal in the
last act. in which Miss Hall was seen
at her strongest. 1T was nara TASK
al best, this impersonation, ana the re-
suit was so near achieving the illusloH
of reality that the details which were
amiss for that very reason loom dls-
proporIionately large. ,,.,-.,
MIR. Mestayer gave us traqluohal
italian villain-well conceived az
though not quite so olive of hue under
the glare of the spotlight as our mem
ories of similar roles seem 10 rgqaire a,,ei
There were times when his portrayal
seemed filed to too fine point
FOO conventional lacking a bit in spon-
taneity Much observation OF the
school of natural acting has made us
a hit skeptical of the existence OF the
absolutely tallOr-Hdut lOiCiShNi' w.
nite the fact that the lines and business
seem to require just about such an IN
ternretation as Mr.. Mestayer gave.
Miss Taylor bungled the utterance OF
several of her best lines, of which she
has an epigrammatic abundance ana
which require care and certain de-
liberation of enunciation. She dressed
faultlessly and acted gracefully but
lacked in the love scenes certain
depth and tragic pathos which the role
reduires. Miss Royce showed too much
f,rv and too little sardonic scorn at
her exit in the second act-the alI-
ference sharply defines the character;
Miss Hayward's melodious voice helped
her impersonation more than a some
What excessive makeup about the eyes
handicapped it. Mr. Gilbert's Turk was
In GOOD character, but requires more
vivid degree of scorn and venom to en- en-
FORCE it's brief impression. The other
roIes were fairly well assumed.
A very marked, if minor defect in
yesterdays production was the persis-
ienf INSTRUMENTATION of which several
actors were guilty The name OF the
italian Don Juan Of the comedy Is