The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-21
|LACKAYE SCORES IN 1.-THE STRANGER"
Dozen Curtains Demanded by Enthusiast Audience-Stirring Drama Finely Presented
Return Engagement Promised Next Tuesday Evening - Big Audience Likely

Wilton Lackayef the distinguished American star in powerful. purpose full new drama in three acts. .The Stranger. by Charles Dazey. made a memorable impression upon the fair sized audience that yentured forth to
 greet him at the Park Theatre last evening. MT. Lackaye has the ad- vantage of a cast of sterling merit, and a production scenicaily complete. The play is replete with promise of success.
 By popular request MT. Laci1aye will play return engagement next Tues who would have visited the theatre last night but for the inciement weather. will thus have another 0p- portunity to witness the strong new play.
 The story deals with the decay of the depletion Of the fortunes of the Southern aristocracy. and draws a striking contrast of patrician indo- Ience of the South with the piebeian push of the North. Pedigree is very important if you are buying jack sizing up a man." is one of the bolts that John Marshall. the stranger from the North hurls into the startled group of representatives of the oldest families of the South. Again he says. ''The old social prejudice of the South. and sometimes, I think stronger than the strongest thing in the world"
 John Marshall returns, unknown. to Danville. the town from which he was driven out as the poor-house rat. whose mother died without making clear the identity of his father. Mar shall succeeds as a railroad financier. working up from the bottom. but when he meets Mary the daughter of General Randolph Warrington. his for tune appears to him as naught com- pared to the distinctions of family, the absolute necessity of which is in bred in the daughters of the old South. Marshalrs great battle for commercial supremacy in Danviile iS secondary to his fight for the girl he loves. Political intrigue. scandal. the Carters, father and son. until the denouement when 1t is learned that John Marshall is not birth stained. but the rightful son of Col. Carter. Mar shall's rival suitor, whose supposedly honorable son has under the Southern code of ethics. no claim upon sociat recognition.
 Marshalrs fight to overcome the es- tablished order of thines. social and business wise fin the South. Is the theme of the play. MT. Lackaye gave a convincing picture or the uuStuuS business man of the class that doesn't give much thought to women in gen. eral, but forgets almost everything else when the one woman In particu- lar arrives. Mir. Lackaye's handling of the intensely dramatic situations, of which there are not few. was in his accustomed thoroughly masterful manner No less than 12 calls were given his company and himself upon the climax being reached.
 Muriel Starr presented fascinating picture of the spirited Southerner who is won over to Marshalls idea of thinking The cast furnishes several excellent character players inciud- ing Frank Burbecki as Judge Carter, Charles Reigl as General Warrington, the grizzIed Confederate warrior: E. M Kimball. who scored in the pie turesaue role of the auctioneer and justice of the peace; and Harriet Brent as the "mammy." Harry o. Stubbs as Theophilus Pipkney. a7l- other Soutberner being enlisted in the Northern school injected many flashes of fun by his breezy interpretation of the part of the pickle drummer. Edna Conroy, as Venetia Warringtor. Mary's confident. added another to the enchanting picture of the South. Oth- CTS who rounded out the capital cast were Louis Thomas, Osborne Searle, and H. s. Northrup. MT. Northrup as the younger Carter gave an effec- tive enactment of a part that fairly reeked with yiiiafny