Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-19


Mrs. WilmOre. re............ Lillian Burkhart
Helen Plugenet. et.............. Margo Dufet
! Mrs. Llnnell Lowell Alice Taylor
| Mrs. Blaney ..........-.... Louise Royce
Rachel Neve. e.................. Blanche Hall
Patty, servant at the Linnells' 49,.
Fanchon Lewis
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
A striking illustration of how a great
and stirring play can rouse a stock
company to transcendent achievement
and bear an audience In sheer surren-
der on the crest of it's waves of passion
and struggle, was given at the Burbank
yesterday afternoon. THE Hypo-
critics." brightest and sanest of Henry
Arthur Jones recent dramas, was pre-
| scnted in a manner which left little
to be desired and few words of adverse
criticism to be spoken, but many of
| sympathizing pleasure in the intelli-
| gent, Industrious fidelity with which
! the stock company clothed and illumi-
mated it's stern and tender message.
For, like every play which wins it's
| shelf among the library of stock class
les, "The Hypocrites" has a message
not a mere epilogue or envoy tackled
on the end, but a simple, lucid fact
! of life visible through the web of
| plot and interplay of chaPacter-bend-
! ing and breaking the hearts of men
! and women, cleansing and vitalizing
/
vanquished, servant of human frailty,
master of human destinies In THE
| Hypocrites" that fact is the highly
romantic and altogether practical one
! of fidelity to first love-. Against 1t
are arrayed wealth and power, the
| cunning of the lawyer, the wit of the
mother, the visible symbol of the
churchs authority in a soft and pleas
ure-loving vicar. For that factor
the rights of youth and youths fair
! dreams of honor and chivalry-arise
| lonely, humble curate and the purity
of a sweet girl. Against it fight, by
! the compulsion of family pressure, the
reluctant hearts of a wronged young
woman and her betrayer
Lennard Wilmore, who has deceived
| and deserted the woman he loves, is
persuaded by the "hypocrites' to deny
| his sin-which Is the sin of unrecking
! affection-in order that he may con-
tract an advantageous marriage with
/ the daughter of a baronet. The latter
with the subtle sensitiveness of
young woman bred on the finest ira
ditions of Christian honor, suspects
some secret in his life. Lennards s
father-a hypocrte from pietistic
vanity-and his mother-a hypocrite
for love of her son. and, later, lust
| of worldly position-connive to make
! him repudiate the woman he loves
! for the sake of the woman who loves
hin-and whose ancestral riches will
! rehablitate the waning Wilmore for
! tunes. 1t is ruin or the lie for them,
| and they choose the lie. With char
acteristic readiness, the family lawyer,
| devoted to their interests, helps them
tell 1t, adroitly keeping his skirts pro-
| fessionally clean the while. The vicar.
who, with Wilmore, senior, controls the
| curate's living is depended on to-
silence the latter, when a chance visit
of the wronged girl threatens scandal.
And in this dilemma, with courage
which is signal warrant for his sacred
| orders, the priest stands firm. Ihe mis-
| treated girl is cajoled into denying the
| truth. Young Wilmore, in memorable
scene of tremendous tensity, dulls the
goad of his conscience and lies in the
! face of his fiancee's father. The lie is
triumphant. The curate faces disgrace
and the fate of widely heralded
troublemonger in close and intricate
| ecclesiastical establishment. His vicar
has mentally dismissed him as silly
fool, and is considering the menu Tor
his next parochial dinner.
And then-the girl whose suffering in
| this crisis only the clergyman has
noted swoons. Her heart-Stultlfylng
lover clasps her to his breast. Forget
ting family honor and position, with the
| unconscious fidelity of true affection, he
| pours into her ears the story of his un-
| conquered love and his belated peni-
| tence. In a flash of luminous sincerity
| the eternal right of the One Man in
| the One Woman has asserted itself, and
| all the plots and eyasions of hideous
social tyranny cannot recall 1t to re-
| creance,
In the last act the curate wins his
real victory, as he battles with the for
giving ardor of the pastor for the soul
of the mother, and saves it-snatchinS
with it the true happiness Of the
family, and their social position, and
| shred of their Vaunted reputation for
Erastian churchmanship as WELL Just
how. you must see the play to know.
In this climax-one of the few good last
acts in a modern play-the poor young
curate of Weybury is, like Manson,
true servant in the house-and like the
central character of the Kennedy play,
again, its master, too. Indeed, in a
| certain sense, you must first see The
| Hypocrites" to comprehend the tie-
mendous message of the drama which
returns to the Mason tonight. In
! summer season in which the eastern
| boards are a panorama of tlnseled
frivolity, our tourist visitors can ill af-
| ford to miss either play.
AS the curate William Desmond hero
| ically discarded the arts of the matinee
idol and won honest applause by the
sterling merit of the best impersonation
| have seen him give. He must eschew
! the theatric and espouse the natural to
prevent the part dwindling into re-
pulsive prig. With rare and only mo-
mentary lapses he did just that. Finely
authoritative was his delivery of his
| lines in his crucial interviews with the
| Wilmores. He was weakest, | noticed,
at his entrances-a defect which van
| ished as he seemed to lose all self
consciousness in his engrossing role.
His fury in the big scene of denuncia-
ton in act III tended to incoherency,
as was perhaps natural in the situation,
of which the character has ceased to
be master But even here, as else
where, he seemed to catch himself up,
and his impersonation of the last act,
! in it's restrained and pardoning charity,
was thorough and unassailable. At his
best Mr.. Desmond has shown us that
he is an actor who can be discriminat-
ing as we'll as vigorous, and he is at
! that best in "The Hypocrites."
Miss Hall spoke with deplorable in
distnctness in her early scenes hold
ing our attention solely by her own APP