Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-03
THE CAST

Betty. ................ Miss Beatrice NOyeS
(Their younger child)
Miss Molly HattOn, Mrs. Warren's
sister. er..,............,.M Miss Grace Gardner
General Griffin. n.............. sheldon Lewis
General Harding nm. Louis Il. Morrison
General Carr rr...........J james X. Appellee
cor General Grants staff
Lieut.. Burton, U.S,A..... Richard Bennett
Blake, u. s. secret service. Charles Glblen
Corporal de Peyster. .........,. Harry Oakes
Zack Biggs. gs.................Ro Robert Leonard
Bill Peacy ..................... Harry Spear
rom DaDney' ''''''.:,.' E. :Cnarles husg'es
SapphO. O............... .SIlss Adele Harrington
Orderly. ,.......,.........,.C Charles Merkle
Courier. ...........,....,... Richard Daley
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
Not great play, but a great scenic
production, was staged at the Belasco
last night when THE Warrens of Vir-
ginia" had its first presentation west
of New York city at the hands of the
resourceful and working stock
company. A weak fourth act helped to
dampen the enthusiasm which three
previous acts of fairly strong, climatic
dramatic narration had aroused, and
the heart t-breaking strain under which
the Belasco players have been laboring
in preparing for the premiere during
the greater part of Sunday night and
Monday morning had it's visible effect
upon their portrayals. But the real
reason for the failure of THE War
rens" to achieve more than q success Of
popularity lies in it's construction.
We are given the character of a
Union soldier who is compelled by his
superiors to go to the home Of the Vir-
ginia girl he loves, bearing forged dis
patches, with the design that these fall
into the hands of her father and induce
him to plan a sortie which shall ex-
pose the main body of General Lees
army to a concerted attack by the fed
erals. Faced by the conflicting claims
of love and duty, Lieutenant Burton
chooses to obey orders. He goes to
keep the appointment with Agatha
Warren in the rose garden in which he
had been an honored guest five years
before, and as he goes he looks the cad
he feels.
From then until the climax of the
third act, in which his treachery to his
sweetheart and her family Is discov-
cred. the dramatist has been unsparlnS
in the agony which he >inflicts upon
this character Again and again Bur-
ton is on the point of proving traitor
to his country by telling the girl all. In
the third act, in which she hides the
dispatches in her dainty shoe and de-
fies her father to seize them, we know
the lieutenant is hoping that they will
not be discovered and that the trap
VIII fall At every impulse to sacri-
flee his duty as an officer and soldier
to his love the Union spy who has ac-
companied him to the Warren home
holds him back, and the bitter spir-
itual tragedy Of the man is wrought
out, step by step and heartbreak by
heartbreak, until the Warrens, waiting
hopefully for the supply train that was
never to come, hear the shouts and the
firing which tell them the Confederate
army Is in retreat, and which reveal to
the old general the duplicity to which
he has been a victim.
Then, with the whole truth revealed,
Lieutenant Burton. offered a scornful
freedom by the family whose hearth
stone he has outraged, refuses it and
turns back to his room Of imprison-
ment in the mansion, hoping that death
Will be sure and swift-the death of a
detected spy and an migrate for 10y
alty's sake, and the only solace left
him as a man of honor.
Artistically speaking, the playwright
should have shot him and ended the
play as a tragedy But he spared him
In Difference to that popular prejudice
which detests a tragic ending to II
drama of American life. The war ends
coincidently with the defeat of Lee
and Warren, and in the last act we
learn from casual conversation that the
life of the lieutenant has been spared
by order of General Warren, and that
he has gone north to try to forget the
woman he has wronged in righting his
country's wrongs.
In this last act-Which should never
have been written-we see the old gen
eral, weak and yet a heroic figure
threatening to draw his army musket
and shoot Burton, when the latter re-
turns to beg forgiveness and the hand
of the woman he still loves. In a scene
of considerable bathos and sudden
change of viewpoint, which is scarcely
credible, the old warrior at length
gives his consent to the union which
his daughter apparently desires, despite
her denunciations of Burton, and the
curtain descends abruptly on a de-
nouement that is neither convincing
nor satisfactory.
There are big moments in 1.-THE War
rens of Virginia" as when the daugh-
ter beats frantically upon the locked
door, beyond which Burton sits in self
accusation after he has refused to flee
from the scene of his perfidy. There
is excellent comedy all the more vivid
and beautiful for being a minor chord
in the clashing symphony of sword and
cannon. There is good acting, too by
the Belasco company, but it all cannot
save the play from failing to convince
us. One feels that the dramatist has
tested our good intentions beyond rea-
son and has tortured his character be-
yOnd endurance-all for the sake or an
effect which is, when achieved, rather
theatric than dramatic. and which puts
the actor who plays Burton at a tre-
mendous and unmerited disadvantage.
Richard Bennett never had harder
or a more thankless role in his stage
career than that of the young lieu
tenant He made him as nearly pos
silble as such a character could be
made. He made us pity the deadly and
dreadful alternative which war-and
the iaywright-forced upon the Off
GER. He could not make the role prob
able, and he wisely played it in as
simple and subdued key as possible
For the first time since his memorable
local appearances in parts which in no
instance have been commensurate with
his shining abilities, Mr.. Bennett allowed
us to forget the character in the actor
1t was the least he could do, In simple
justice to himself
Miss Holmes showed sweetness and
womanliness is Agatha, and was strong
in her great climax. She failed, how
ever, to convey all the emotional sub
tlety which the role requires-the bat
tie of contending passions in the soul
oe the daughter and the sweetheart
She was at her weakest in those mo-
ments when she had nothing to say,
and should have conveyed by her eX-
preston and sheer pantomime, the feel