The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-10-05
AFOOL THERE WAS
DEPICTS TRUE BUT
S0RO|D LIFE STORY
billiards. Play Pictures Human
Weakness Horribly, but
With Great Force.
GOOD BILLS MARK OTHER
OFFERINGS AT THEATRES
Shows at Proctor's, Lyric, Wald-
mann's and Miners Please
Large Crowds.
PLAY to send chills a-chasing

PLAY to send chills a-chasine
"a down ones spinal column is "A
Fool There Was All that is
most horrible in human life is de-
picted with a 1nality that frightens
h fool a everything desirable-besi
OF wives, most charming of children,
enviable worldly position, perfect
health-yet, when the Woman crossed
his vision he let himself slip, slowly,
uncertainty, then rapidly, i~rrevocably
down and down the path that led away
from them all until disgrace and his
name were synonymous because she
smiled at him with the vampire smile
she had accorded many Others who
pleased her fancy-fool that he was.
When the final curtain has dropped
II Is with a feeling of nausea thai one
narshals his faculties. TO see a man
let himself go, body and soul. is not
pleasant. And to see the triumph of
the wiles of a tricky. soulless thing In
woman's form is even worse-yet not
for a second would YOU consider leaving
the theatre until the tragedy has
played itself to the end, so wonderfully
and weirdly is it enacted. Whether it
teaches a lesson is to he questioned.
OSftolH II - tfldl lnt tdulnS cildTdt-
tiers, though exaggerated, represent
types that exist only too often. The
world is full of fools, and f~or-every fool
there is a vampire Of some sort, not
necessarily a woman, to make him
sound the depths of his own foolish
ness.
At this day it is not necessary to
dwell on the story, but it is impossible
to help commenting on the art of Por-
ter Emerson Brown, the weaver of it,
of Frederic Thompson, master of
stage settings. With a sure touch, a
keen intuition as to the laws of on
trast, a splendid certainty as to the
application of light and shade, this
play WAS written. 1t has the qualities
that make for long life in the theatrical
world, and even If its actors We're far
less efficient its strength would make it
live.
Robert Hilliard gives a strong, con
sistent portrayal of the Fool, showing
with splendid art the mental struggles
of a man who realizes the enormity of
what he is doing, but whose power of
resistance is not great enough to shake
off the charm that is spelling his ruin.
His final picture of the hopeless, numb
Drained, drink-crazed Fool. who realizes
to the awful last o much he has lost
Is one to be remembered.
Katherine KaeIred knows how to
sacrifice herself to the requirements of
a disagreeable role. In the face of
Kisses from the irrepressible gallery,
she makes the vampire-woman a mag
net and a snake, who f~ascinates and
disgusts, and holds ones interest and
ones dislike to the last, Miss Nanette
Comstock realizes all OF the POSSIBLE
tiles of the sweet, forgiving wife, strik-
ing just the right note of pathos in the
scene where she goes to her husband In
An effort to reclaim him, while Will
lam Courtleigh, as the husbands
friend. plays a strong part with all of
the force it demands, with a humor
is infectious, and q that
is convincing, according to the roles
requirements. A goodly share of hon
ors must go to dainty, denlre little
Boots Wurster, one of the most
natural child actresses. OF the stage to-
day. The other members OF the cast
are thoroughly adequate.
ADELINE-STANLEY CARRICK.