Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-15
THE CAST
nv w. HERBERT BLAKE

LADY Almira Wynn ......'' .AtiSo S1
Miss lie Strange Eth 9n,, aV Grey
Maid ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Jane Grey
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
Idlxe some elfn creature, half child
half sunbeam, Miss Marie Doro shone
across the Mason stage last night win
a light that was now dazzling, now wan
and piteous, but always, until the las'
two minutes of the last act, ike the
CLEAN from fairy's wing, thlns
apart from the heavy lives of men ana
women. And then, unlike the END Oh
all the older fairy tales, the sprlte; IN
one supreme ecstacy of pain ana JOY
was transformed into woman JUST Dc
the wrinkled human parchment which
has wrought the miracle becomes
man. ,i-o
In 1.-THE Morals of Marcus MT. Locke
has shrewdly introduced melouraIlla
into an immaculate London nanslon'
and then has intrusted its principal ac-
tion to a being clearly not of earth, a
hamadryad, perhaps, as Sir Marcus Or
devne suggested, a salamander, TOO
childlike to be quite woman, TOO
quantity mature in covert ways TO pc
all a child. Carlotta she is, and she mas
run away from Syria with an Engllsh-
man. who deserted her in London ana
then carelessly committed suicide. over
tbe hedge into Sir Marcus English gar
den she tumbles, flinging helter-skelter
all the proprieties, and Sir Marcus life
long plans for a massive tome on
Renaissance Morals" as well Slowly,
but with increasing Zest, he capltulates,
and the better part of two acts are
consumed in his reluctant discovery
that he loves. when you look like
that, you'd melt the bust of Nero" he
signs, and we agree.
Across this sunny comedy fails the
shadow of two lives. A libertine friend
of Sir Marcus wooes Carlotta noncha-
lantly. and when a Turk appears from
the court she has fed to hale her back,
and is checkmated in his plan, 1t is the
friend who induces the waif to elope
with him, being urged to the step by a
prospective divorce, who herself loves
Sir Marcus. Carlotta's consent is won
only on the pretense that Sir Marcus
life is in peril at the hands of the
vengeful Turk. To save her guardian
she consents to the flight.
The final act is tense bit OF stage
craft. Sir Marcus, old again and shak-
en-. arrives from his vain quest of Car
lotta, and consigns his Renaissance
Morals to the dustbin. The woman
who for six years has vainly loved him,
now freed of her husband, conducts q
somewhat daring courtship ana is
nearly conqueror when Carlotta-a nag
gard, sobbing Carlotta, deserted, but
stiu a child-comes home. A moment
later. nv chance, her abductor enters,
and in a rapid scene of denunciation
and protestation of her purity by car
lolita. the soul of the woman is born.
The curtain descends on the waif and
her guardian, to both of whom sorrow
has brought wisdom" Carlotta coins
the epigram as she wonderlngly pngnts
her troth, and 1t is the best of a glitter
ing array the brisk dialogue discloses.
Miss Doro has endowed the American
stage with a distinctly new person.
ality. which may or may not develop
weIl-balanced powers Of dramatic ex-
preston. She is still the child of acts
one. two and three in the strange coun-
try of the footlights. With her, as
with Carlotta, much must depend on
how she grows UP. The velvet rich
ness of her voice, the unplummeted
depths of her big, wistful eyes, even
the sylph-like suppleness of her move
ments-all these are but weapons IN
her artistic arsenal. 1t is the soul
which must fight the battle, the mind
command it, A hint of tremendous re-
serve power she gave us in that pas
sionate "Liesl Lies!" of the last act,
and when Carlotta cried out to her
protector till God tore her away, we
felt the impress of powers whose
scope had been only lightly tested.
The menace to Miss Doro is that which
threatens to chain Miss Maude Adams
in child roles-the senseless, insatiate
demand of a following" for one type
and only one type of plays for any
given star. For the sake of Miss Doro,
as well as her crescent art, trust she
Hro a 10 rry1f6arapn
Mr. Arden was intermittently salts
flying as Sir Marcus, scoring hand
somely in the climaxes at the end Of
the second and last acts, showing with
a sure hand the rejuvenation Of the
character under the influence of love,
but mounting some Of his best lines
when no swiftly pressing action forced
him to more careful articulation. In
the third act, where Sir Marcus calls
the Turk, Hamid, Mr.. Arden was at
his best. His wooing in the later ac-
ton was rather too matter-Of-fact for
a newly awakened lover.
Mr. Tiden shared that perfectly per-
functory method of slurring over his
strongest epigranlS, which may pass for
the natural" method of acting if one
doesn't care what one doesn't hear Mr..
Eric gave a sharply etched cameo of
the contemptuous Turk and played
Up" to Miss Doro better than any other
member of the company, his cool
hatred serving as an excellent back
ground for her staring, stricken terror.
Miss Taylor said her go back to your
dim centuries speech with clear, tell
ing effect. and Marie Wainwright gave
us one Of those well-bred aristocratic
Mrs. Grundys she knows so well how to
embody But the real honors in the
minor roles go to Miss Marion Abbott.
whose Antoinette was the very life and
breath of French peasant cunning and
simplicity.
The Belasco theater offered Charles
Klein's play, THE Lion and the
Mouse" last night introducing Richard
Bennett, who is specially engaged to
play leading roles with the Belasco
stock during Lewis. Stones vacation.
The part of Jefferson Ryder is one in
which Mr.. Bennett has already achieved
considerable success. and he received a
cordial welcome and appreciation last
night from the audience. Miss Florence
Reed shared largely in the honors ac-
corded. as did David M. Hartford in
the part of John Ryder
A more extended notice of this pro-