Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-20
THE CAST
BY W. HERBERT BLAKE

BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
A homely, human play, with a motif
of almost fantastic idealism, is The
Three of Us" which opened the new
week at the Burbank yesterday after
noon. To fulfill a careless promise,
woman stakes happiness, love and
honor in turn upon her own inner as
surance of virtue. She wins, ana she
suffers to win. Her suffering Shapes
the drama.
The Three of Them are Rhy, Glenn
and Sonnie Macchesney, sister ana
two brothers. They own a mining
claim, which suddenly pans out rlch'
after the capriclous nature OF It's klhu'
Rhy's admirer, Louis Beresford, has
been offered an adjoining claim, rlcn
in the same golden metal. His ardor
is aroused by Glen, who sells his
knowledge of its secret horde to Beres-
ford for the money to get him well out
OF a life he detests. Be is only boy,
but he has exceedingly practical
money-getting instincts The discoY-
cry of the vein of gold has been made
by Steve ToWnley, khy's favored sultor
and Beresford's rival Steve tells Rhy
of his find. In a moment of inspired
cunning Beresford tests Rhy's light
hearted aVowal that he can trust her
with secret by telling her that he has
bought the coveted claim. In the
meantime Steve has planned to sell it
to another purchaser, who learns with
indignation that the secret OF its wealth
has been divulged, and who blames
Steve for the disclosure. Steve un-
willingly suspects Rhy Of betraying his
confidence to his rival, and on her re-
fusal to clear herself by denying that
she knew of the sale, their breach is
complete.
In the simplicity of innocence-and
it must be admitted this is bit stag
gering-Rhy goes to Beresfords S cabin
to beg him to release her from her
promise. He refuses and successfully
points out her compromising position,
and promises her marriage in a mood
of fugitive contrition. Always it is his
sense of power over her that impels
him, never the finer kind of trust which
she demands of a wooer. Upon them
enters Steve, doubly suspicious now,
and Rhy, sadly eforestalling his ques-
tions, refuses to make any explanation
of her conduct. If no one else will
trust her she will at least trust her
self. She invites a woman friend to
tell the town of her visit, and again
declines the shelter of Beresford's re-
peated proposal of marriage.
The situation is keenly complex. To
solve it the playwright rather evades
the problem of faith in Rhys purity,
of it all, is halted by Rhy as he is
gliding from their home to catch a
train. She has OWNED his rebellion
and his treason to The Three of Them.
He confesses and tries to justify both,
but struggles to get away His sister
at length induces him to repay the
price of his information to Beresford.
At this juncture Steve enters and Glen
blurts out the truth later healthily
chastising a youth who has dared to
repeat the gossip of his sisters visit
to Beresford's home. Steve wins Rhy.
We may imagine the claim to be trans
ferred according to bargain, or the
breaking of that pact just as we
choose. In adjudicating the prior
claim of a woman's right to honor and
trust in the man she weds, the play
wright apparently has forgotten the
more material issues of the struggle
1t is a striking commentary upon the
minor place in the human scheme to
which she accords those issues. In
deed it is like Rhy Macchesney to for
get them altogether. One need not
condemn or condone this vivid ideal
ism. One can but note it.
The incidental realism of the piece
was not the least of it's charms yes
terday. The broad brogue of Louise
Royces delectable Irish cook, the door
that was frozen shut, the collapsing
hatrack, the vigorously piled carpet
sweeper, the stove that was not de-
MED its regular morning shakedown
merely because it was a stage stove;
all these are Of the world one lives in,
as was the popping Of the radiator in
Z "Girls" Indeed, the only noticeable
flaw in the staging was a failure in
that consistent realism which the art
of the playwright led us TO expect 1t
was cold in the first act, we were told
and you may believe we were eager
enough to credit it. But nobody, save
Miss Taylor-who can be depended
upon to carry the latest modes Of
Broadway into any wild locale between
Nevada and the Great Divide-dressed
as II it was cold. Clem was in his
shirt sleeves; he was always hot, but
not quite in that way. The windows
were up, too, by the way, which cheer
fully invited an epidemic of pneumonia
for everybody.
But the acting, for the most part.
was creditable. Miss Burkhart bore
the brunt of it with a delicate appre-
citation of the rare and bravely mystic
nature she was depicting. Her Rhy
was intensely homely and real even
when most quiZzical and elusively dar-
ing. She might have shown rather
more evidence of struggle and repul-
sion when Beresford grasped her in his
arms in the third act. At least she
should have appeared as surprised as
did her tone after she had disengaged
herself. But in the later scenes, de-
spite a persistent nervousness of man
ner, she carried us surely over the
difficult places in the drama and made
us feel that it all happened And that
is the surest warrant of an actress
art.
Mr.. Hartford shared honors fairly
with her. He rightly played his first
"heavy" in new company with a forth
right simplicity that did not apologize
or equivocate. We saw his viewpoint
and we saw that he respected it and
proposed that others should. That they
failed to-, neither nettled nor dlscon-
certed his Beresford. On second
thought, fancy he got the claim. The
Beresfords usually do.
Mr.. Beasley's Steve balanced Beres-
ford Steve was as bunglingly honest
as Beresford was astute and wary. But
Steve learned by his bungles. Mr.
Mestayer was life itself in the first act
as the bored youth who starts the
action going. In the second act he
grew<up rather surprisingly. At the