The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-02-04

Rowland and clifford present ALI
bert Phillips and Leila Shaw in The
Great Divide says the BiJou thea
ter program this week. Never q
word about William Vaughan Moody.
who wrote the play. Not that Will
alive. And Rowland and Clifford are
really modest. They allow their
names to be printed in smaller type
than that given to the two stars,
and the title of the play.
For all that, they have given THE
Great Divide" q very fair produce
ton. more than unusually good, even
unexpectedly good. The Bijou is
rather famous for the excellence of
the productions that appear there at
popular prices. Once in while a
as II they had graduated from cor
respondence school OF acting, but in
the main the Bijou is remarkably
lucky
1t is lucky In getting THE Great
Divide" To be sure the play is o.
trifie beyond the average theater-
goer, who is accustomed to the, will
lain still pursue her" style of dra-
ma. Several laughed last night dur
ing the first act for no apparent rea-
son other than that they did not
on. A laugh is a relief under such
circumstances. When in doubt.
laugh, is the motto of many per-
sons. When the hero, who up to that
time has looked most remarkably
like a villain. backs into the cabin
latter shooting a man to save the
lady he intends to wed}. strips off his
neckerchief with free and dramatic
gesture. and indicates that he has
tE.- t%k& 49,, H. t~4- lAfs Ex.x-A
arm. there really seems no occasion
for laughter.
The first act Of THE Great Di-
vide" Is not altogether a comedy.
In fact. the first act of this play
is rather too brutal. after the OPEN
ing pastoral scene, to be regarded as
humorous. 1t is raw, cynical, sar-
donic. astonishing and most intense
~ dramatic. but II is far from funny
and it almost seems as If the author
did not intend it as light society
play.
A woman is left alone in cabin
near THE Great Divide" In South
ern Arizona. Three bowboys. drunk
en-, dissoiutes one greaser or Mex
lean, the other two apparently just
as mean scum of the earth, go to the
cabin. break down the door and pro-
coed to gamble for the girl. She bar
gains with one, and finally tells him
she will marry him If he will get rid
of the others. He buys off the Mexi-
can with necklace of nuggets. He
shoots the other outside the cabin, Is
wounded, and walks in backward for
the girl to make good her promise.
He lis staggering from the wound in
his arm and the rum he has swiiled,
and the smile of satisfaction on his
face is decidedly leer; but somehow
or other the scene does not seem to
demand smile, not to say a laugh.
Yet quite number in the audience
last night at this juncture laughed.
Perhaps there was a scene killer
somewhere around and the bright
eyed spectators saw It. Anyway they
laughed, so evidently something was
wrong with the play, or the acting, or
the spectators.
Let it go at that.
The acting was all that could be ex-
pected. To be sure, Miss Shaw Ia
rather plump to 80 skipping about
like fawn, but she displayed a quiet
effectiveness at times. Mr.. Phillips
was the cowboy who turns from ra-
pine to righteousness through his love
for the girl. and almost SPAWNED the
gulf between himself and Henry Mil
Ter. That is not The Great Divide"
however; neither is the chasm be-
tween the effete East and the Wild
and Woollys between the veneered.
conventional, highly cultured species
of society and the rude and elemen-
tai: neither is THE Great Divide" the
abyss between Miss Shaw and Mar
garet Anglin in the part OF the hero
Inc. The Great Divide is the diff
ference between great poet and
those before whom he casts his pearls.
Rainey's African Pictures
icax fnin