Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-19
HELD IN SPELL
OF TAUT CLIMAX
FASCINATING PSYCHOLOGICAL
SPECTACLE AT MASON
LITERARY MATINEE is PLANNED D
FOR MAJESTIC THEATER
Harry Mestayer and Lillian Burkhart
to Have Aid of Club Women.
koIb and Dill to Open
in Dream City"
BY w. HERBERT blake

this week at the Mason. For seven
full minutes in Edward Locke's comedy
drama we have minimum OF COM err
sation and a crescendo of taut, sup
pressed emotion. From the moment
when Adelina discovers that her voice
is gone until sne is saved from suicide
by ner old Italian teacher, there are few
words spoken, but there is great acting
-pantomime, relieved by gasps and
murmurs and at last the music of the
plano as she tries once more to force
out the notes that will not come.
The only thing really rlvaling this
tension which we have seen since the
Wane of the regular season was Sal
walton Nell" There the grip was less
torturing, If longer maintained and less
relieved by eventual comedy. But 1t
was less emotional, more Intellectual
lied. 1t was the mind which hung de-
tached on the issues of the stage strug-
gle, and not the sheer emotional tug
of the situations. There was something
of the same enchainment of interest in
Miss Florence Reeds marvellous enact
ment of the role of Merely Mary Ann"
but it was softer and less poignant.
And there were moments of tremen-
dous absorption In Miss Barrymore's
portrayal of Lady Frederick, but they
were as evanescent as the delicate fla
vor of the Vaughan comedy.
The only two things since Irving's
BELLS" and Mansheld's "Jekyll and
Hyde, which seem to me to have ex-
ceeded the emotional clutch of the
Locke play were Gillette's Sherlock
Holmes and Augustus Thomas terribly
prolonged impression of the mystical
and unfathomable in "The Witching
Hour" When one considers the sim
plicity of The Climax" and its reli-
ance on the common and ordinary for
its strongest appeals, the superlative
artistry of this little cameo of bohem-
ian life may perhaps be appreciated
Very much of the stage credit for
this effect belongs, of course, to Miss
Ruby Bridges. So keen is the sympath-
etic pain which her Illusion stirs in the
audience that it takes two timorous
curtain calls to arouse US to anything
like a round of sturdy applause. The
spell is not broken until the lights
flash on, and we look at our neighbor,
still dazed with the little tragedy
which has been enacting. Miss Bridges
impersonation we'll sustains the test OF
second inspection. Particularly
shrewd is her distinction in tones be-
tween her first attempt at The Song
of the Soul" her failure in the, crucial
test and her final burst of surprised
melody. In the same appreciatiVe splr-
II Is her proposal to Luigi~-half jest,
half in ouizzical earnest. She also lets
us see the rational evolving of her love
for the doctor-never so subtly strong,
as when momentarily turned to pro-
portionate hate. And at the close she
rightly leaves us with an unsettled
problem in our minds-the question or
her happiness with the art scorhlng
doctor 1t Is, in fact, the elemental
problem of marriage itselt-a propiem
that love must solve.
Miss Bridges should find some way TO
make us distinguish her words In the
dressing room before she enters in ace
1. Few of them could be caught last
night, and 1t was exasperating. Her
voice. clear and strong in the bigger
scenes, has trick, too, of disappearing
at the end of sentence spoken with
out particular enthusiasm. This could
be avoided, and should be, for 1t is
the only observable flaw in fine por-
trayal.
There is excellent stimulation of kin
ship between Mr. Wilson and MT
Latscha, as the Golfantis. father ana
son. They are laughably alike In their
moments of anger. Mr.. Latscna makes
his Pietro a finely blended composite
of Italian-American, with the hot i'm
petuosity of the Neapolitan and the
quaint juvenility of the New York boy.
His seizure of the dagger in the last
act impressed me as bit clumsy last
night, but perhaps 1t was the penalty
of a second view of the play. His boy
ish grief over the catastrophe in act ii
and his consistent depletion of callow
volatility were fresh and natural, even
to the throaty voice and the mottled
complexion of the artistic enfant terri
ble
Mr.. August surprises us with the dis
coyery that a dyed -the-wool Puritan
of the modern school can be such al
good fellow, despite all. HIS is per
hans the most precarious role of the
play. A little slip, either in the direc-
tion of excessive bigotry or overland
liness. and the character would forfeit
our interest and sympathy. btghtlng
first against the stage, then music it
self, and finally against his own love
he persuades us of his own plausibllity,
with all his fragrant human errors
debited He is consistent; 1t is his code
and moral horizon which are out or
perspective with the big joys OF life,
and it's sorrows, too. think MI
August overdoes his expression of bore
dom at Adelina's singing In the nrst
act. Sorrow, not WEAKNESS, should pc
his dominating note here, for he is for
getting the present beauty in fears for
the future. He is a fanatic, yes, out
not a blase fanatic.
JJnconsciousy, the doctor atones for
his own crime, and in the steady noel
ity of his love Mr.. August again be-
speaks our admiration for the phy-
sician. We feel and respect his
strength of conviction, while utterly re-
iecting It, and we realize that there is
more than a poetic truth to the smile
of the anchor as applied to him in the
third act.
But when all is said ones memory
recurs to Mr.. Wilson's old musician as
the suavely dominant figure in this
action His comedy is an exquisite
thing whimsical, sunny souled and
over and over twin brother to rare
vein of pathos. Latin in every flash
of the eye and burst of sudden ire, ne
is a virile manly Roman, miles from
the sleek and purring creature which
as a villain has done injustice to our
stage conceptions of an heroic and fas-
cinating race. Much of the humorous
business" of this little menage a
trois owes its success to him. and his
entrance to the Toreador song from
Carmen" is a thing to warm the heart.
In these brief bits of reminiscent and
contemplative tenderness his touch was
firm and assured. / met Mr.. Wilson
yesterday. He is a charming gentle
man, but 1 can never forgive him for
not being Luigi Golfanti.
There are few brilliant lines, but
much pleasant, homely banter in "1'he
Climax" as when Luigi says: "A music
teacher makes his reputation from his
clever pupils; his living from his stupid
ones" Mr.. Breil's incidental music is
alluring and tender and in good taste.
1.-THE Song Of the Sour is not, per-