Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-11-29
THE OESERTERs"
INADEQUATE FOR
MISS HELEN WARE
Play at the Newark Has Faults
Taxing Even Her Con-
summate Skill.
A FTBR seeing oThe Deserters7 one

A tTBR seeing "The Deserters7 one
~ wonder how any anage who
possessed some degree of astute-
ness could have accepted such a vehicle
for the exploitation of the personality
and ability of an artist like Helen
Ware. Faulty In it's situations and trite
as to plot, the play proves almost too
heavy for the shoulders of this splendid
actress, who SO lately has come into
her owns The collaborators, Robert
Peyton Carter and Anna Alice Chaplin,
have br1dged over yawning gaps with a
nonchalance that is almost admirable.
Fol instance, the hero finds the girl he
is destined to love in q Frisco water
front barroom. And the next act sees
her ensconsed in a luxurious hotel, her
adorer still in attendance and accepting
her transition with an unquestioning
faith that Is quite ridiculous to the
most youthful and romantic observer,
even though when first they met she
was dancing in a short skirt and smok-
ing a cigarette. This is but one of the
discrepancies that weary an audience
that wants very, very much to be inter-
ested.
Helen Ware is one of the most able
women on the stage today. She can lift
a scene from the mediocre to the unu-
sual by the force of her simple, direct
methods of working. She is an actress
who neither rants nor tears her hair
when expressing emotion, but all the
woe in the world seems concentrated
In her low-pitched, vibrating voice and
intelligent, changeful face when she SO
wishes 1t.
vAs n.-.-- a. a
Her role in THE Deserters," that Of
a young army detective, whose business
Is to trail deserters and bring them
back into line, gives her an oppor-
tunity, though a small one, to display
her versatility. She invests the dancing
girl with a.reckless vivacity that is In
startling contrast to the sorrowing, dig
niied woman who finds herself in love
with the man whom she has tricked in
to giving her his confidence. In the ex-
animation scene, where the young de-
serter is cleared of the charge of muir
der. Miss Ware exhibits a direct force
that Is almost masculine in its inten-
sity. With her to hold it up, THE De-
serters" royes interesting. Without
her 1t might serve as a cure for in
sonnia.
Very briefly, the plot tells of James
Craig, second lieutenant, HI has
knocked down a man in q quarrel at
the home of his first lieutenant. Think
ing he has killed him. Craig runs away.
Marston enters in time to see the man
reviving in the arms of his (Marston's)
wife, and shoots. He and his wife, in
fear and despair, procure Craig's pistol
and throw it beside the dead body.
Madge Summers, the young detective,
Is put on the case. but does not find
until she has corralled her victim that
he Is wanted for murder. How she
then goes to work to find out the truth
and sets him free forms the business
Of the final act.
CaIdara Good ms Deserter.
Orme Caldara proves wholly ade-
ouate as the deserter. He makes the
character very lovable, though one does
wonder how a ma so fair and square
could have run away at all, even If he
did think he had committed murder.
But then, II he hadn't, the fearless
young detective couldn't have cotched
him, and there wouldn't have been
"no play" Lolita Linthicum quite
looked the part of the selfish, flirtatious
Mrs. Marston. though her acting was
rather silly than frivolous. Frederick
Truesdell was well cast as the colonel
of the regiment.
The barroom scene offered something
of a novelty. Del de. Louis excellentiy
characterized big Dan Reilly, the pro-
~prietor, and Edward C. Howard and
Lawrence Sheehan portrayed with real
ism two types of toughs. Eleanor
Stuart, as d very, very much fallen
woman, o~veracted to an alarming ex-
tent, and Max Esberg, who played the
part of a waiter. came ear to spelling
the whole by insisting on doing a SER
pentine wiggle between the bar and
the tables. Goodness only knows where
he cultivated his ideas of toughness.
Staging Is Careful.
THE Deserters' is carefully staged.
and the costumes of Miss Ware and
Miss Linthicum are very beautiful.
Newarllers made it evident last night
that they were heartily glad to see Miss
Ware under any circumstances, for she
was forced to respond to numerous
curtain calls.
ADELINE STANLEY CARRICKI