Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1910-03-29
FLORENCE ROBERTS
GIVES PSYCHIC PLAY
1.-THE Transformation" Which Might
Have Happened, Proves an Ex-
ceIlent Vehicle for Tall
ented Actress
By DAVID @. BAILLIE

Florence Roberts proved her popular
ity in Los Angeles by filing every
nook and Granny of the big Auditorium
last evening with a gerat and friendly
audience that came in the first Instance
to see her, and incidentally to follow
the play she had adopted as thes We
hicIe for her talent. THE Transfer
nation" which Is Rupert Hughes title
for an adaptation of a famous Italian
classic, Is psycho-physical study,
dealing with the SURPRISING love of an
artist for his dead wife and his iniiu-
ence on the character of popular
dancer, whose physical resemblance to
the dead woman is Ito quote the play)
$50 uncanny" that he hires her to pose
for his unfinished portrait of his an
geic spouse.
Environment, the influence of good
man and intimate association with the
memory of a good woman transform
the dancer, Elika Marescot, giving her
the very soul as well as the image anu
likeness of dead Colinette.
Miss Roberts of course interpreted
the part of Colinette, wife of Servigny,
and the much more difficult part OF
Flika Marescot, the premiere danseuse.
Comte Philippe de Servigny, better
known as Philippe Norbert, the artist
acknowledges the extraordinary physl-
cal resemblance of Elika to Collnette'
but. while willing to pay for the hke-
ness of the body and to engage the re-
incarnation of his dead wife to SIT 1or
her unfinished portrait, is aghast at
the thought of surrendering his physl-
cal ideal in exchange for the unhappy
, Elikas physical counterfeit OF COLI
nette, though naughty Elika VOWS
- fpqsa . a
she is psychically as well as physically
replica of good Collnette.
The play has a great advantage over
most essays in psychology in that IL
does not strain belief. II Is entirety
probable, natural and harmonious; d
reasonable story worked out to log
ical conclusion, which affords MISS
Roberts magnificent opportunities ioI
a display of her mastery of the art OF
emotiondliSm,
The main theme is so compelling the
incidents and characters are in the
nature of a somewhat subdued accom-
paniment. Yet a very highly trained
capable and competent supporting
company had many opportunities TOT
excellent individual work.
For example, Robert Stowe Gill as
Jacques Bonnard, a member of a gay
set, and infatuated by Elika, displayed
genuine ufdn1aIlc talent. I1S IL ~ tiiNi
oughly conscientious player and keen
student.
But OF course among the male char
acters Philippe. in the magnificently
built personality of White Whittlesey,
dominated the stage. This character
too had experienced, under the influ-
ence of Colinette, a transformation
from rake and gambler into a. mourneI
possessed by a memory of his grand
passion, and by the desire to complete
with the aid of Elika the physical pic
ture of the woman to whom psyehlcaliy
and in character Elika at first does MOI
bear the slightest resemblance.
Woman's devotion makes the appeal
to Philippe that wins him to the trans
formed Elika. Madly in love with him
she nurses him after he is wounded
and blinded in a duel with Jacques
Bonnard, her Jealous admirer. AlPf
well when the curtain falls, and the
play ends conventionally, leaving the
audience hoping and believing every
body lived happily over after
In spite of the central coincidence OF
the play, the story is not improbable
1t Is easy to believe lit really hap
pened," and in its verisimilitude the
TRANSPORTATION" is probably the most
remarkable psychic study ever present.
ed on the stage. In spite of the UNI
canny nature of the resemblance be-
tween the dead woman and the living
the Transformation" from first to last
is an appeal to reason and an actual
demonstration of human nature, and
therefore q successful play.