Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-09-19
MADAME XIS STRONGPLAY
STRONGLY ACTED-BRISSAC
And WRAY SCORING SUCCESS

n the emOllOQdl dDllkly Oh lUtS SleIl-
ing actress is given full sway. She
is cast in strong part, part that
draws upon all the strength and abil-I
ity of the actress and part into
which she must throw every ounce
OF energy. Brissac does all this and
does it we'll She demonstrates her
ability to handle any role that she
may be called upon to play. Incl
dentally Joha G. W-ay does his best
work in Madame X His part calls
for strong emotional work also, and
Wray meets the emergency. Handi-
capped with his broken arm. in the
court scene, his address to the jury
is masterpiece.
However, Madame x Is a woman'sl
play; it is a play that Calls for an
actress Of superior ability, play that
necessitates the actress submerging
herself and becoming a woman Of the
underworld who has sounded its low
est depths; a woman who has been
driven ever downward, in her efforts
to forget her first girlish error and
its manifold and bitter consequences.
Brissac does all this; she utilities ev-.
cry possibility-and Madame X is re-
plete with them-that grips at the
heart-strings and opens wide the tear
ducts. And, again be 1t said, strong
men as well as women weep with
Madame X while she is suffering the
torture Of the damned; while she is
hearing young and inexperienced
lawyer plead for her life and draw a
parallel that Is true, almost word for
word; when she learns that this young
lawyer is the son she deserted twenty
years previously. Yes, strong men
weep and appear not to be ashamed.
The tenderest emotions are touched
by Madame x as they are touched by
but few plays. John Raphael utilized
theme that is far from new to dram
Artists but he bedecked 1t with raim-
ent that cannot fail to reach the
heart as interpreted by Miss Brissac.
The curtain rises In the prologue
with scene in the home Of Floriot, a
rising young Partisan lawyer, whose
infant son has just been snatched
from the grave Jacquelin, his wife
who deserted him two years previous
ly. having learned that her child is i'll.
enters the home and requests her hus-
band flames Dillon) to be allowed to
see the child. Jacqueline virginia
Brissac) also asks forgiveness. which
Floriot is about to give when she tells
him that her lover is dead. She is
ordered from the house and enters up
on her career Of underworld traffic
which Is to have its climax in murder
twenty years later. Noel (Ferdinana
Munier) an old friend of Floriot, en-
tiers shortly after the woman, viva
cious. young and pretty, has departed,
learns Floriot's story and upbraids
him, admitting that he, also, has low
ed Jacquelin. Both men start on a
world wide search for Jacqueline
without success.
Act shows room in a cheap
hotel twenty years later. Jacqueline,
together with her latest lover has
just arrived from South America. Her
lover is man with a past, a black
mailer and petty thief who has re-
turned to France with the idea Of
associating with other and more pros
porous men of like ilk. The lover,
LaroQue Joseph Cox has learned
from Jacqueline, whose brain is be-
numbed with the use of absinthe,
ether and other drugs, something of
her past-which in her sane and sob
er moments she has guarded jealous
ly. Meeting his blackmailing con-
freres he confides to them as much of
Jacqueline's history as he knows and
they decide that Floriot is good ma
terial for their Matchmaking art. Laro-
que is detailed to secure additional
information from the woman but JAG
Queline becomes suspicious, accuses
him of his base design and, to pro-
tect the honor of her son, kills her
lover.
Act II is devoted 10 the work of the
blackmailers and develops a week
spot in the work of the playwright,
who allows Floriot, now presiding
judge of the court, to be mulcted OF
q goodly sum OF money by pair Of
comedy blackmailers whose al
phonse and CASTOR" work is superlu-
Gus and tends to detract from the
strength of the play.
Act III, the act of Madame x and
the one to which the previous ones
are merely preludes, shows the court
room scene with Jacqueline who has
steadfastly refused to talk since her
Imprisonment and who is known only
as Madame Kin the prisoners box
dock, Raymond Floriot John Wray)
as her legal representative, Floriot
occupying the bench with the presid-
ing Judge Cray Hanford) and Ferdin-
and Munier doubling to the role of
prosecuting attorney.
Every effort to secure from Madame
x recital IF the reason for the MUIR
der having proved fruitless, Raymond
Floriot delivers to the jury an address
that is masterpiece, masterfully de-
livered and acted. Wray is seen at
his best in this act and the broken
arm, almost, is Iorgotten-by the audi
ence. When Madame x learns that
her own son, the boy for whom she
has committed murder, is her attor-
ney, she gives vent to heart-piercing
scream that brings lump to the
throat and tear to the eye. Through
out his entire address the mother
feasts her eyes on the son she has not
seen in more than twenty years; she