Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-23
Columbia.

Occasionally out of the f1otsam and jet
sam of dramatic efforts that comes in on
the theatrical tide there appears a play
that seems to stand out as distinct and
valuable discovery. 1t may be dainty
comedy which draws out the bewitching
charms of some demure star and gives
her the opportunity to display all the
graces of lovely woman, natural and
artistic, or it may be one of those melo-
dramas whose situations stir human emo
tons. This time 1t is the melodrama-
a rugged classic of the willis of Alaska;
a dramatiZation in four acts of Rex
Beach's novel, THE Barrier" The place
of presentation was the Columbia The
alter, the time last night, and the audi
ence distinctly representative one, that
filled the house, poured out ovatiOnS of
applause while the play was going on
and filled in the intermissions with I'M
disguised comments Of appreciation.
Whether it was the play itself does not
much matter. The fact stands that the
drama held every man and woman with
a grip that was not released until the
fall of the last curtain
The play offers no new elements in its
construction. 1t deals with the haunted
fugitive from justice, the sQuaw man, the
supposed half-breed heroine, the faithful
and devoted native lover and the chosen
ideal of the heroine from that far-off
civilization of which she knows but little
There is the villain and his side partner;
The fight to the death and the triumph
of the right at the close. But although
the elements were not new their blending
was such as to compel interest There
was no waste of words, no forced stu
atoms. no unnecessary padding or time
killing interpretations.
Theodore Roberts, as John Gale, the
man who had been robbed OF the woman
he loved and then falsely accused of her
murder. who had taken her baby girl to
the farthest confines of civilization and
showered upon her a fathers love that
amounted almost to idolatry, was master
full in his delineation throughout. His
great strength lay In his reserve of dra-
matte power that shone forth at every
stage Of the performance. whether the
situations were conventional or thrilling
with intensity. No less an artist in his
splendid delineation of Dan Stark, the
wife murderer, father of the heroine and
accuser of Gale, was w. s. Hart. He
never lost his poise for an instant, but
whether as the bravado In the hour of
his bluff. or the willy villain in the cool
elaboration of his scheming, he was self
possessed and convincing. No small
praise, too, is due Alphonz Either for his
presentation of Poleon Doret, the French
Canadian. 1t was strong bit of acting
and had its reward in the applause of
the audience.
AS Necia, the supposed half-breed
daughter of Gale and the heroine Of the
play, Florence Rockwell has found per-
maps the DeSl medium she mas ever mad
for the display of her dramatic talent
Lovable as the innocent girl who had
grown to womanhood with no thought or
care of her origin and with the belief that
one day she would be the wife of Po-
leon; tender in the beauty of her love
for the young army officer who eventual
ly won her heart. and strong in the natu-
ralness of her delineation of the woman
who felt that without fault of her own
she had been robbed of all she held dear
made creature ha
of half-breeds and bIacklegs alone. she
was equally effective in all the phases of
her role. Indeed the cast as a whole was
one of the best that has been presented in
single play in long time Guino So
cola. Abigail Marshall. James Durkin.
John j. Pierson, J. H. Greene and the
Ziegler children all lent substantial as
sistance to the principals.