The daily sentinel., 1909-03-03
GREAT AUDIENCE ENJOYS
MAGNIFICENT PRODUCTION

its history been favored with the
production of such "a beautiful,
high class and magnificent the
atrical production as that offered
II by Manager Edwin A. Haskell. of
the Park opera house, last even
ing, when the Klaw .2 Erlanger
production of Presbrey's drama
tization of Sir Gilbert Parker's
wonderful novel, 'The Right of
| Way" was presented. Every
seat in the opera house was oc-
cupied. II was truly repre-
sentative audience gathered to
witness what the audience knew
to be one of the finest offerings
I'm the theatrical line seen in any
city, no matter how large, in the
West this season.
The writer saw THE Right of
Way" the same Klaw & Erlanger
production, at the Broadway theatre
in Denver ten days ago, and in spite
of the fact that the local stage is not
nearly so spacious as the Broadway
stage. the performance here was
Iequal in its beauty and completeness
to that given at the Broadway. With
the exception of a few minor set
pieces the local people had the pleas
ure of seeing the entire series of mas
sive and lovely settings. From a
scenic standpoint The Right of
Way Is hard to equal The four
great stage settings are beyond doubt
The lovliest and most brilliant ever
seen here.
Those eminent young actors. Guy
Standing and Theodore Roberts head
the large and most excellent com
pany. The work of Standing as
Charlie Steele. character unique in
I 10 Inns nf lot fan 10 ,-1rsl l.I.
Standing delineates the character in
truly ideal manner. 1t would be
hard to tell in which of the great
scenes Standing reached the highest
point of acting. AS the dissolute,
brilliant, ever questioning, ever skcp-
tical lawyer, rs the seeker after rest.
as the tempter of death, as the friend
of Suzon, as the man who had lost
his memory of the past, as the lover
of Rosalie, as the propounder of never
answerable questions, all of these,
all making up the strange character
OF Charlie Steele. Standing was
great.
A wonderful character is Joe Port
ugais, the rough, fearsome French
Canadian riverman, who in return
for Drunken Charlie Steeles' action
in saving him from the gallows after
he had murdered "A man who had
betrayed his wife, devoted his life
to watching over Charities Steele and
whose love and devotion for Steele
and whose repentance and remorse
over his crime, robs the rough char
acter of it's responsiveness. Theodore
Roberts takes this part, and difficult
as it is with its strange and unique
French-Canadian mixture of lang
uage, he portrays the character in a
marvellous manner. In the scene
where Portugais tells Steele, who,
having lost all memory of the past
as n result of the terrible wound on
his head. wants to have that memory
back again, of the terrors of memory,
of the peace in forgetfulness and
confesses his crime. Roberts touches
a sumblime pinnacle of dramatic
work.
Guy Standing and Theodore Rob
erts could hardly be excelled in their
work In these two powerful central
figures of ''The Right of Way
The play presents many of the
greatest scenes unfolded in the novel
and keeps the plan of the story well
in line although it must be hard at
times for those witnessing the play
who have not read the book, TO keep
a clear understanding of the strange
course of events. In order to give
happy ending to the play the drama
tist has closed the stage story on a
uniting of Steele and Rosalie, tri-
umph of love and Cod and spares
the play the sombre and tragic end
ing that the novel gives the story.
Standing ana Roberts are assisted
| by number of extremely clever peo-
pie. making the cast worthy. and
| ideal throughout
The audience was delighted with
\ the performance.
Grand Junction was indeed for
tunate in securing The Right of
| Way" w.