Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-15
NOVEL DRAMA
IS "INvASION"
WAR PLAY HAS ITS FIRST
STAGING AT BURBANK
CORDIAL RECEPTION ACCORDED
PRODUCTION AND AUTHOR
"The Toreador" at the Grand Proves
Best Musical Show Seen Here
in Many Months, and is
Well Acted

l. . . . .
Mrs Benham. m.................. Louise Royce
Margaret Dorr, Elias cousin. Margo Duret
PEOPLE OF THE DREAM
Allen Benham, congressman ...'.;.
John &. Ransome, colonel California
rifiemen. .......... David NJ. Hartford
Fulton Lane, adventurer. A. Byron Beasley
Kaneko, scout and spy of the Muscsvite
Susli, house servant. ......... willis Marks
Dick Upton, newspaper correspondent:
..................... Henry stockbridgS
Ella Benham. ....,....'......'o olanche ha,' ll
Margaret Dorr, Red Cross nurse.
....................L Lowell Alice Taylor
American, Chinese renegade Enghsh
soldiers.
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
The American sense of humor Is the
hero of Invasion" and callous Ori-
entail craft it's villain. Much OF the
action is off stage-within the minds
of the audience 1t is a drama OF
powers and struggling races - the
eternal antithesis of east and west
staged In whirling vision. Through
IT all amid war and torture and the
cold. analytic scorn of the Oriental
despot who stalks through its scenes
we catch, clear and free, the ringing
American laugh. 1t braves innumer-
able yellow fiends and dares lncreolDle
engines of modern militarisfn. II fears
nothing so much as treason and cow
ardice. It is the spirit of America
and of the pioneers of the Pacihc coast
The dominant figure in Invasion
is a military genius of the new school
the school which some folk think
will dispense with such old-fasnloned
weapons as Valor and fortitude in IA
vor of smokeless powder and clock
work murder This individuals name
is KanelSo. He is Korean and ne
has studied in American universities,
there imbibing along with quantities
of technical information an enduring
hatred for America. Kaneko deter
mines to humble this naughty nation,
and in the attempt he comes TO gflet
on the shoals of the inexplicable
American qualities of bluff and nerve
and grim humor His fleet waits at
the entrance of the harbor OF Greater
Los Angeles. while Kaneko seeks the
control" which manipulates American
defensive mines in the harbor. There
is not an American warship In the
Pacific. The nation has been reused
to its western peril only when that
peril appears in the guise of a slant
eyed, saffron checked horde A group
including a congressman, broker, an
army lieutenant and several women
relatives and sweethearts are made
the subjects of torture in the search
for the control"
one after the other they are led out
to undergo various forms of agony
Cfrom all of which, however, the play
wright later ingenlously extricates
them). At last only a young woman
and her sweetheart-the army ofhcer-
are left. To save him from electrocu-
tion-sneeringly referred TO by the
Oriental as Americas faVorite meth
cd of punishment-the girl reveals the
location of the Control" A moment
later from the wireless station, which
is the scene, one hears the dull, muf-
fled explosions which signify that the
mines have been touched off and that
the last material protection to Amer
icas California sea coast has been re-
moved.
Here. then, is the problem raised.
The struggle has reached its climax.
How will Mr.. Johnson save his coun-
try and spare our sense of the plausi-
BILE at the same time?
In the next and last act we learn. In
a brief hand to hand tussle with Kan
eko the young American lieutenant
disarms him and fees aloft in an
aeroplane, taking his sweetheart cozily
with him. We see them mount in a
series of superb spectacular effects,
and at last, engirdled by clouds, we
watch them while they drop noiseless
bombs upon the unsuspecting Korean
fleet below. A flash of red light from
the harbor eliminates the lower part
of the aeroplane. Only thus do we
know of this silent and tremendously
effective method of destruction.
And then, after we have seen the
aeroplane and the happy lovers disap-
pear aloft, we return to the original
peaceful scene in a California home
In, In HTent nf
before the arrival of the baneful Kan
EXC. The army lieutenant is asleep in
his chair, just as we left him at the
end of the first act We suddenly dis
cover that Playwright Johnson has
tricked us, all in perfectly good part,
and extricated himself from his di-
lemma at the same time. The IN
vasion." with its terrors and ultimate
victory, is all a dream of the young
lieutenant-the working of his incor-
rigible American sense of humor even
in his unconscious moments. the con-
gressman comes in. and we learn that
the national lawmakers have agreed TO
a bill which will give California ade-
quate protection.
And then we rub our eyes once
more, for that seems more like
dream than even the amazing mlntary
of the previous acts. But II
is a safe and sane conclusion. We
carry no problems home to our dinner |
except a cordial wonder at the adroit- |
ness of the playwright.
For a first play, Invasion does lts
author credit. 1t Is interesting. Its
is wholesome, sensible, gen
timely Americana thing rather neces-
sary in treating such a theme as is
chosen. 1t has. of course. its technical
The characters all enter
abruptly, and exit occasion
ally as if they had just recollected |
pressing business in the wings. There |
is lack of preparation evident in both
cases. Some of the comedy of the |
earlier scenes might be compacted
without losing the CLEAN of it's good
contrast with the SOM
ber events in store Also, there is a
dubiety and inconclusiveness to the
climaxes which might be remedied. |
Their method is a novel one-not the
only point in which the playwright has
departed from the beaten path of
drama building. They are like the end
of successive chapters in a detective
story. We can almost see the ITO be
painted on the descending
curtain We have to stay to the end
in order to guess the outcome. This
Is art, but exasperating art.
But the dream excuses and explains