Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-03-07
TWO WOMEN
AND NEITHER
uEnN pAnn
VBlGl uuUU
MRS. CARTER TOO VOLuMINOUs
AND ANTIQUE FOR THE PARTS
THE PLAY NOT A GOOD We.
HICLE FOR DISPLAYING HER
TALENTS

Mrs, Leslie Carter drew full house
last night at the Grand, where she
presented Two Women" for the first
time in Salem. The play is not a good
vehicle for displaying such talents as
the lady has-or had, It deals with
the salaclous side OF city life, and the
characters, the two women" jeanette
Moreau, wife OF Count Remy de Mar
CYL who is little home-Iovlng wo-
man, and good-and. Jeannine Bartel,
a public dancer, but dead ringer"
as to looks, OF the wife. and decidedly
bad, are the automatons into which
Mrs Carter is supposed to inject her
personality and make move and
breathe and live.
They are both young-and, well.
Mrs Carter, owing to the passing Of
numberless years is-not. She is not
built for the parts, either, for as the
eonsumptiye, young, devoted wife her
magnificent proportions and breadth
of beam require too much effort on
the part Of the audience to get their
individual imagination up to the point
Of forgetting the visible fact that as a
fading, whitening victim Of consump-
tion Mrs Carter ls--not q success,
As the bold, bad ballet dancer, the
illusion is somewhat easier of absorp-
tion, for as audiences too wen know,
ballet dancers and Actresses both
grow old. Mrs, Carter, in the second
act, where she first appears as the
ballet dancer, was fine, as to the act
ing, but one could not forget that, as
the race touts say, she was carrying
weights" The scene itself, though not
highly moralizing, was fine. 1t repre-
sented the rich men amusing them
selves with that class Of women
whose gowns and morals are both de-
cidedly decollette. There were ele-
gantly gowned girls, wines cigarettes,
standardization, a young country
girl taking her first dip into the brlny
and murky waters cf the lower world,
who gets tipsy-aild who, by the way,
did a fine bit Of actlng-and, of course,
the young fellows--the moths or the
candles, just as the point Of view is.
Here, Remy, struck by the resem-
blance Of the ballet dancer to his dead
wife, is introduced to her--and the
rather inane and very trite play cen.
ters from this on around his efforts tc
remain true to his dead wife, to kaeT
from loving the ringer and the re-
markable swift reformation of the bal.
let dancer-who gets good at the enc
OF the play, which happily and wisely
stops while the lady is stIll good.
Mrs Carter talks fast, much toe
fast, so Il seems to the humble horst
editor, and she seemed to lack emo
ton. OF course, the horse editor iI
only speaking from his Ideas OF how
i a woman Of that kind and class woult
act. He does not presume to pit hlI
, opinion against that OF Mrs. Carter
! for she has had a wide experience II
= the big cities, and, perhaps, made thu
!, subject a close study, but the rapidit!
OF her language certainly detractet
: from It's effect
= Tho applause was not enthusiastic
!, but the general consensus OF opinion
q of those present, as far as the hors
= editor could discover was that "Mra
q Carter was a great actress and the,
were satisfied, so the horse editor sub
mlttlng his individual opinion, let's lie
J. II 80 "at that"