The Washington herald., 1912-12-17
COLUMBIA.
.sRIackbirds.' .


Laura Hope Crews and H. B. Warner
made their first appearance before
washington audience as co-stars last
night in Henry MiIler's production Of
"Blaekbirds," which is playing at the
Columbia Theater this week, after
7ryout week in Baltimore.
The new play, which the programme
dubs "a romantic comedy" is by Harry
James Smith, who has presented both
the Lady BIackbird and her mate in
plumage which so glitters and glistens
and CLEANS through the three acts re-
uuiued to tell their story that not only
is the audience intensely interested in
the doings of these members OF the
''light-fingered gentry" but touched
with an altogether human sympathy
for them as well.
The very moment Leonie Sobatsky
Qaura Hope Crews) makes her entrance
in the first act her chic and charm, the
tenderness of her smile, the babyish curl
Of her soft hair, the irresistible magnetism
CT her, wins the audience over to loyalty
to her no matter what the play may I'M
fcld, so that she is just as adorable IN
the role of a girl of foreign and ignoble
birth Cwhose father was counterfeiter
until he died and left the girl to work
for a clever man as a smuggler of pre-
dainty slippers or lost to view in the soft
tendrils of her lovely hair-the poor little
Lady Blackbird, who has known no other
way in life than earning her comfort by
her wits) as she would have been had
she been the first lady of the land.
Coming back to America laden with
Jewels for Mr.. Bechel, her employer,
Mime. Sobatsky meets the Hon. Neyil
Trask Oh. B. Warner), who is supposed
to be a parsonage of the English peer
age The Lady Blackbird has just
made an agreement with the Bechel per-
son to accept the invitation OF the
neauveau richie Crockers Gather, mother,
and daughter) to visit them in their new
home in Detroit, where she is to secure
a priceless rug by the substitution of
a counterfeit, when Trask is admitted TO
her apartment
The Englishman pays court to the girl,
who will not listen to him until she un-
folds the story of her clever business
manipulations, whereupon the honorable
English nobleman informs her that he
is as much a nobody as she declares
herself to be, so they both go to visit
the socially ambitious and equally pie
bian Crockers-she to obtain the rug and
he under pretense OF arranging a mar
riaee with his noble brother and Airline
Crocker, who, with her mother, is con-
niving for a title.
Trask makes the opportunity for the
Lady BlaCkbird, who is interrupted in
substituting the bogus rug for the lit
tie scrap of sacred carpet, by the old
fashioned grandmother of the Crocker
family, who is kept in the background
because of her ignorance and simplicity.
The old lady tells the girl some very
simple truths concerning God and right,
and of love which can come to no good
md through wrong doing, and for the
7 rE,1,- -
wits fly helter-skelter; her dwarfed con-
science awakens, and she falls of her
purpose despite the fact that her beloved
is in dire need of funds because the
police are after him for a crime he is
supposed to have committed before he
left England.
The third act finds Leonie in her
boudoir-a poor little desoIate, be-
draggled bird, deserted by the
Bechtel person, and her maid, Su-
zaune. Her lover climbs in through
the window, a fugitive from the
police, come to claim the help of
the money she was to have obtained
for the rug substitution. And when he
learns that ste deliberately stole the
rug and then put it back again he, too.
denounces her for a traitor to love, and
Is about to leave her when his heart is
stricken by her suffering and he comes
back to learn the reason of her strange
conduct. OF course he doesn't under
stand the course she has pursued, nor the
logic of her reasoning, but he accepts
it because he believes in her even If he
cannot believe in grandma's religion, and
in the moonlight he slips out once more
through the window while she promises
TO hold the police below in the library
until he makes his getaway. and there
the last curtain leaves her full of faith
in his sending for her to come to him in
80
suppose that they Tive happily ever
after"
"Blackbirds'' is a pretty romance, filled
with intense situations. a bright comedy
overfiowing with short, crisp, clever
lines, and keen satire on the neuveau
richie.
The characters presented in the piece
are consistent with the single exception
of that Of Lady Blackbird 1t is to be
doubted if a girl born and brought up in
criminal surroundings and taught no
other code OF morals would yield so
quickly to what would logically seem to
her mind the sentimentality of an old
woman, particularly when her swerving
from her purpose meant possible tragedy
10 herself as well as her lover. as did the
little smuggler to the few words of
grandma in the second act of the piece |
when the accomplishment OF her purpose |
concerning the rug was practically as |
sured. This is the one weak spot in an
otherwise logical story. for the character
OF the Honorable Nevil Trask is drawn
with admirable consistency. and Mr.. |
Warner makes the young English |
crook a thoroughly -debonair' and low
able chap. calling to mind his equally |
clever portrayal of Jimmy Valentine |
of another season. and scoring heavily |
with his Columbia audience last night. !
The piquant charm and delicate humor ]
of Miss Crews and the admirable acting |
of Mr.. Warner are backed by brilliant |
support from an evenly balanced cast.
Sydney Valentine, who plays the scoun- |
drelly Bechel person, and Nine. Mathildei
COttrell, as the unscrupulous Suzanne, :
each give exceptionally fine character |
pOrtrayals. Miss Ethel Winthrop is the |
bungllng and ambitious Mrs. Crocker, |