Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-12-12
FUN STRIPPED Of
AUGHT OFFENSIVE
At THE NEWARK
"Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh' Is
Truly a Triumph of Mrs.
Fiske's Art.
TWO TRAINS Go WHIZZING
OVER PROCT0R'S STAGE
Brown of Harvard at 0rpheum
and Shows in Other Houses
Creditable.
MRS.

A4lh0F -
A Comedy in Three Acts, by Harry
James Smith.
Justin Rawson. 49,. Henry Stephenson
Miss Rawson, his sister. Hattie Russell
Godfrey Rawson, his younger son
Shelley Hull
Anthony Rawson, his elder SON..
Douglas Paterson
Stephen Leavitt. .......R owen Mech
Mrs. Stephen Leavitt. 80. .Gilda Varesi
Peter Swallow. Joseph kilgour
Kitson foung
Mrs. DeSalle. ..........F lorine Arnold
Mrs. Bumpstead- LEIGH. Mrs. Fiske
Violet DeSalle. Kathleen MacDonell
Helena van Brugh
The innocuous desuetude of a theat-
rical season never found a more APP
propriate resting place than the
cooked hat into which it was knocked
last night by a PETERSON at the New
ark Theatre. Absolute joy has taken
up it's abode in the playhouse wherein
ths atmosphere for the present season,
with T exceptions, has been sur
charged with wearied yawns. Second
rate burlesque and cheap ~vulgarity
nave DeeD OliCIco ~ a
public. 1t remained for Mrs. Fiske to
b.,w awe. the pail and furnish the
tabled headgear inc the correctly
aimed impetus whereby the one might
be entombed in the other. Gentlemen,
bring your sisters and your cousins
and your aunts, also your wives and
~sweethearts, and maxi the acquaint-
ance of Mrs. BumpsteaG Leigh" She
81 x.,.,,ll oixra xfnll M
rest, true, for her presence spells
action: but it also spell joy, JOY OF
living and of a fight, and of Laughter
holding both hissides." And don't come
late, for you might miss a line. 1t is
needless to tell you not to leave early
you won't.
MRS. Bumpstead-Leigh," as a play,
is not great. 1t is only a commonplace
little comedy On a commonplace theme
the alteration of "family"-but it is
cleverly written, spiced with witty
lines, emotion, a strong climax and
peopled with artists, every one of them,
from the drawing-room to the kitchen.
1t is the story of an ambitious young
woman to climb to the top of the social
ladder. Her father was a successful
of pills, out in Indiana, and
at his death she, with a willing mother
and a reluctant sister, went to Wash
ington to train for the social fray and
become used to the new name they
assumed. The campaign led them to
Paris and London, in which places the
ambitious one acquired a useful hus-
band and resolutely forgot Peter Swal-
low, her old sweetheart, back in Mis-
sionary Loop, selling tombstones. h
action begins in the Long Island home
of a most exclusive American family,
into whose circle the younger sister is
to enter as the bride of the elder son.
steered by the designing sister. They
have managed to maxi an impression
by their airs that would quite out
English England, and they are per-
sonae gratae to all about, and affairs
progress rapidly until trouble looms III
in the form of a good-looking younger
son, whose life on a Western ranch has
knocked whatever ideas of snobbery he
may have entertained from his head
More trouble clouds the horizon in the
person Of Peter, the tombstone man,
who is worsted by the encounter. but
the climax Is reached Immediately after
when, consclence-troubled, little sister
Violet rebels at so much deception, and
tells the whole horrid, vulgar truth.
The end-go and see it.
Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh triumphs
despite these seemingly overwhelming
obstacles. She even manages a mother
who is all right when she keeps her
mouth shut, and this she will not al
ways do.
AS the dynamic heroine Mrs. Fiske
adds another to her long list of mas
terly p%ortrayals of character. She is
a thorough artistic, overlooking none
of the small details that make an ar
tisan an artist. She Is adroit and re-
sourceful, and she causes one to for,
get that she is Mrs. Fiske. One could
only ask that she speak more slowly.
Her lines are so good hat strained
alertness is almost, but not quite, for
gotten in their enjoyment.
She is wise enough, too, to gather
about her an array of people exactly
suited to their various parts. She
does not seek to shine by contrast. but
by a complete, thoroughly satisfying
production. The cast is uniformly ex-
cellent, led by Joseph Kilgour, who
was last seen here with Miss Frances
Starr in "The Easiest Way" SO en-
Pertaining is he as the smart under
taker, Peter Swallow, that 1t is to be
regretted that he appears only in one
act. Florine Arnold, as the willing
mother, deserves a paragraph for her
fun-making qualities. aggravated by
her hyper-s seriousness. All won mer-