The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-21
Excuse Me" Just
 One Long Laugh Rupert Hughes Farce is Hilarious
 Entertainment
 LIFE ON THE ROAD But 1t Is the Railroad This Time. and We Travel on a Pull
 man Train
LIFE ON THE ROAD

Excuse Me- the Pullman car car nIval by Rupert Hughes which had a run of several weeks last season at the Gaiety Theatre, New York, and reopened that playhouse Monday eve ming, was presented at the Park The atre Saturday afternoon and evening before appreciative audiences.
 Though the idea of making the scene of a play the interior of a train of railroad cars may not be entirely new, it has seldom before been hand led With such good effect or so much ingenuity. Two of the passengers on MT. Hughes overland limited from Chicago to Reno, Nevada, have been varlously divorced and remarried un- til now their exact status Is purely a matter of geography Tn Illinois they would be man and wife: in Mis- sourl bigamists; in Nebraska he would still be unmarried and she the wife of her second husband; in Utah the laws are in their favor; in Nevada, when they finally reach that state, they may get things untangled Meanwhile, however, the porter must be wary-he, the husband, must be called at 2:15 a. m., when the train crosses the Missis
 Sippi, for in Iowa neither of them would be notwithstanding to the prevailing law
 It is on premises such as these (per- haps not so far-fetched,) with a clev- erly satirical underfning, that MT. Hughes has based his farce. A play, in the sense of a work having coher- ent plot, it is really not at all. But the series of incidents of which it is made up, expressed through the say lngs and doings of the several groups of related and unrelated characters. provide just the sort of entertainment the average person wants. On the stage are depicted number of types such as one usually meets on a Pull man car, chief of which, from an amusing point of view, is, the colored porter, admirably played by G. W. Day, whose drolleries come from his lips as naturally as a stream runs down hill.
 Geraldine OBrien as the bride-to-be, who is finally welded, possesses charm and vivacity displayed in an unusual mixture of acrobatic and histronic skill. Her scene with the burly con- ductor, well played by Lou Hendricks, was admirably done. Phil Staats, as a stout and sentimental "sonse,'' whose wife is going to Reno for a divorce, did his full share in making the piece amusing, and Joseph Tanner was man. ly and engaging as the eloping youth who ultimately married the bride-to-b be- Charles Abbe as the Rev. Walter Tenn Aie has a quaint method and played in just the proper key. Charles Her man and La.live Brownell as a pair of middle-aged reunited lovers who meet on the train after long separation were excellent. Marjorie Sl1irwin act ed well a spright1y and flirtatious young society matron. Lydia Dickson was the minister's wife, sedate, yet venturesome. Aline Fredericks and Jacqueline Blaney were ''more than ac- ceptable" as Mrs. Whitcomb and Mrs Wellington.
 A good bit of character work was contributed by Willard Seagram who displayed exceptional adaptness in the part of Harold Wedgewood, English tourist, very fussy, supercilious and | with orders to the porter l for his tub and slippers, and various | commissions, suggesting | that the ebon functionary of the rail- | road is his own private servant whom | no one else may call on.
 Altogether the cast had been care | fully selected. What the actors were | called on to do was to sketch quickly | salient attributes in the figures, and | to lend themselves freely to the hurly- | burly of the action. This they did | The company is under | the mana cement of Henry w Savage, l who sat with his daughter in the audi | ence throughout the three acts.
 In the language of the German com | edian, Excuse Me-, ''it is to laugh" | The audience enjoyed it immensely