Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-02-25
Old and New Win Equal
Favor at Local Theatres
what Happened to Mary" De.
lights at the Newark by
It's NewnesS.
HEART-THROB STORY IN
CLEVER MODERN SETTING
Olive Wyndham, Sweet and
Fresh as Nature Itself, Car
ries Audience Away.

What Happened to Mary" by
Owen Davis. this week at the New
ark Theatre, is an unusually strong
play. 1t is instinct with life vibrant
with heart throbs, and, if In addition
TO these excellencies and an absorb
tngly interesting story, perfection IN
technique counts for anything, the
play is assured of a long career on
the stage.
On the billboards 1t Is heralded as
an old-fashioned love story. In
reality, however. the play is es-
sentially up-to-date. To what extent
the author has followed the latest
| dictates of taste in dramatic art is
plainly observable in a scene wherein
one of the leading charac ters, John
Willis, has occasion to remain on the
stage alone for while.
Until but a few years ago play
writer's of even the most respectable
! caiibre would have put some sort of
soliloquy into John WiIlis's mouth
Not so the writer of What Hap
pened to Mary" Although laboring
under strong provocation, John
utters never a word; not even a
pshaw! escapes his lips.
How Mystery Is Solved.
In. one scene. when the heroine,
Mary is seeking to fatAom the mys-
terry of her parentage, somebody sup
plies her with a possible elue-the
4 tiny garment which she had worn at
the time she was deserted as a baby
For a while it looked as if this gar
ment was going to be made to serve
as the missing link of identification.
But, thank goodness, the author of
the play rose supreme above this
temptation. He solved the mystery
in more natural, more artistic man
ner, and Mary and her mother find
their way to each others hearts with
out recourse TO the baby garment
makeshift, which a less skillful play
writer might have pounced upon
greedily.
What Happened to Mary is this:
She was given, as a baby, to Billy
| Peart, a general storekeeper at an
oyster shipping village. He raised
her as his niece. The man who had
given her to Peart was Mary's
mothers brother Richard Craig, a
lawyer. His object was to clear the
way for hs own child. Henry, to the
fortune which would rightfulIy belong
to Mary. /. To Mary's mother, the rich
Mrs. Winthrop, the perfidious brother,
Craig, told the lie that Mary, to-
gether with her nurse had been acct
dentally drowned. The nurse, bought
up, conveniently "vanishes"
Mary Goes to Big City.
Craig's son. Henry is a thoughtless
self-indulgent sower of wild oats
He sees Mary at the oyster village
and urges her to go to New York
Her mind has long been inlamed VIII
pictures of the wonderful. fairyland
like life of the great city, and she
goes there.
John Willis. the elder Craig's law
partner, a woman-hater, but with a
heart of gold, stands between Mary
and destruction. He shields her from
the young profligate, Henry Craig
And when the latter steals 81, 600 from
his aunt, Mrs. Winthrop, and Mary
is accused of the theft, it is John
| Willis's power as a cross examiner
that wrings the truth from the guilty
youth and his female accomplice
And it is Willis too, who discovers
that Mary is the long-lost daughter
of Mrs. Winthrop.
Olive Wyndham, as Mary, is sweet
ness itself She has all the pert
freshness and innocency Of noble
girl brought up Wild
Franklin Underwood. as John
Willis, is likewise ideal He is a
Crouch but so admirably does he
portray the difficult role of a nature
in which woman-hatred and true
nobility of character struggle for
mastery that the audience is never
tired of yielding him its unstinted
tribute of applause.
One of the things he says is, in ad-
dressing Mary, You women can't
help being deceitful. You are not to
blame for it. Thousands of years of
struggle against frightful odds, in
which men have held the upper hand,
have made you what you are"
Alma Kruger is admirable as Mrs.
Winthrop: and as Captain Jogifer, a
good-hearted retired old sea captain,
who watches over Mary with the ten
| derness of mother, Ed NJ Kinball
deserved every bit of the generous
acclaim with which the audience re-
4 IL