Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-19

inasmuch as Rachel NeVe is the motive
power of the plot. Her emotion was
refreshingly real as she pleaded for one
last glimpse of Lennard in the midst of
that heaTtless family council of the
Philistines. Whether from her fault
or Mr.. Mestayers, the faint which pre-
faces the climax of the third act was
clumsily done. Practice and a sharp
ened stage instinct can, and should,
remedy this-the only serious general
flaw of yesterdays production.
Mr. Mestayer's repentance as Len
nard in the first act was too STACEY and
did not impress me as logical, even in
thoroughly illogical boy. The fact that
Lennard really loves Rachel from the
beginning should be made clear to the
audience. This is a vital point, and
Mr.. Mestayer's good portrayal of indie
cision in the later scenes does not alter
the fact that he was too much the
placid master of himself in act l.
Speaking with an overemphasized
British accent and lacking in the ro-
bust phariseeism which the part re-
quires, Mr.. Grassby gave the least
pleasing portrayal of the production
In the first act he resembled Bernard
Shaw more than the typical English
squire. In the second act he uninten-
tionally suggested deprecating waiter
In the big scenes of the third act he
was a mere shadow amid the clash Of
more viriie personalities. Lord Will
more is no such babyish cad. and was
not so depicted in the original produc-
ton of the Jones play. Britons have
mannerisms a-plenty, but the typical
stolid John Bull sort are not grotesqu
caricatures, but living men of pro
foundly healthy prejudices against
which the appeals of such as the curate
fall like the waves against Gibraltar.
Mr.. Yerance or Mr.. Duffield could nave
endowed the character with something
of the needful self-sufficiency and still
spared it the grotesque. wilted card
board effect which is the lamentable
result of Mr. Grassby's conception of
the part.
Miss Burkhart, the other specially en-
gagged player, showed a becoming SYM
pathy with her role and held not a
little of our sympathy in the moments
when the mother is fighting with blind
tenacity for what she deems her sons
best interests. Miss Duffet improved
several chances for real work, and
shows promise of much better when
experience teaches her to spare some
of the redundant scarlet and black from
her makeup. Miss Royce could de-
velop her part with a keener d1fferen-
tiation from recent similar roles If she
tried. Miss Taylor was at her best in
the few moments we were permitted to
catch glimpse of the curates wife.
Mr. Duffield caught the penetrating
quality in the baronet very handily-
Mr.. Gilbert was inarticulate in the first
act, but grew into the SNUG barrlster
with some success, despite the fact that
it is a character temperamentally anti
rathetfc to the type which he acts best.
Mr.. Burton was too benevolent as the
worldly old vicar, I am afraid, part
nevertheless which he fits as though he
had worn the cloth all his life. 1t is
no small achievement, after all, to
make us love a character whom we
ought to despise, viewed through the
spectacles of the playwright. Mr..
Marks, Mr.. Young and Miss Lewis
filled small parts with care.
In retrospect, THE Hypocrites' looms
up as about the most careful and dis
tinctive thing the Burbankers have
done of late. 1t is play which every
clergyman should witness and ponder.
And every hypocrite!
Good comedy and fair music is "A
Runaway Girl" with which the Mo-
rosco company opened its third week
at the Majestic last night. Henry
Stockbridge, Fred Huntly, William
Yerance, Marie Nelson, Maude Beatty
and Maybelle Baker get the lions share
of some really clever lines and furbish
quip of originality which evinces no
Wane in the enthusiasm with which
this musical organization waded
through the morasses of sergeant
Kitty" to high and dry success. The
best of the musical numbers fall to
Harry Gfrard and Agnes Caine-
Brown, with Percy V. Bronson given
one characteristic chance to be blown
onto the stage by a gust of dimpl1ng
femininity and forced reluctantly, OF
course) to sing. Mr.. Bronson, by the
way, is doing far and away better
work with his present associates than
he ever did for Kolb and Dill, and the
same NAV he said of Miss Baker, with
the added proviso that she now really
has a chance.
The runaway girl, as you may but
probably don't recall, fled from con-
vent school rather than marry the un-
known man her guardian had obliging-
ly picked out for her. Fleeing with
four delectable looking ruffians, of
whom Harry Girard is the devilishly
smiling leader, and the others look
more like D'Artagnan, Bill Skies and
Falstaff than Messrs. Forbes, We'll and
Thoman she runs plump into the very
fellow she wanted to avoid-or thought
she did-falls in love with him just
like that, and after a series of anus
ing contretemps, necessitating her
charming appearance in the respective
costumes of q strolling singer and the
cutest knee painted boy you ever saw,
winds up the plot and play in much
more timely manner than I have man
aged to prolong this sentence. Yes,
Miss Caine- Brown is the runaway. 1t
all happens in a wood near the con-
vent in Corsica and finally In Venice
Italy
Harry Girard, in the guise of an
italian cuthroat likely to burst out
with "Prairie Land" any time you're
not watching him, has little chance to-
use his magnificent voice in any but a
conversational way-more's the pity.
Stockbridge is a jockey and a courier
the original Man from Cooks, I guess,
and he cavorts and croaks and can
ters in way to make us wish he would
keep it up till the crow of morn. Miss
Nelson plays rather prettily with him
as his inamorata, despite the rather
transparent thinness of her singing
voice at times. Fred Huntly shows
what he can do in a role of real comedy
as a lay brother who fees the convent
before the final VOWS have blocked his
departure, and later masquerades in a
costume which is the exact replica of
the embittered looking Indian on the
pennies with which you bought this
Herald. In both make-ups he is genu
inely funny-better, I think, as the
dry, lantern-jawed lay brother with a
decorous yearning toward the mild
frivolities permitted to a clerical peda-
gogue
William Yerance gives us an elabor-
ate version of the Frenchman which
makes one wish he were back in the
legitimate, where he belongs and which
he adorns, without disparagement to
his work in the Morosco company.
Maude Realty was a drOll and buXOm