Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-02
'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Wins All Hearts at the
Orpheum.

Refreshing as the breath of new
mown hay and as rare as a June day,
Klaw & changers reproduction of
the life of New England folk
through "Rebecca of Sunnybrook
Farm" is a touching drama that
strikes it's appeal direct to the heart.
The theme is based on life as it really
is in the staid villages of the New
England States, and this adds more
to the heart interest of the drama.
The characters In the play as pre-
scented at the Orpheum Theatre this
week are true portrayals of the inno-
cent rural life, not overdone or ex-
aggerated, but just enough to remain
realistic. The drama is one that
needs an all-star cast to give 1t a
good stage setting. and nothing is
lacking in this respect in the artists
that surround Violet Mersereau, the
demure young maiden who plays the
title role of Becky"
She Is a slender maid of tender
years, and just suited to the part as
signed to her.
Kate Douglass Wiggin, who wrote
the book from which the play is
adapted, must have had Violet Mer-
scream in her mind when the char
acter of Rebecca was chosen.
Her manner naturally vivacious,
her eyes twinkling, her smile sunny
combined with natural ruddy cheeks
and hair of deep cocoanut- brown
hue, she is the real Rebecca, as If she
had stepped from between the covers
of the book.
She made her first appearance on
al RI FTae h tar.d
stage-coach, behind a pair of prancing
bays under the guidance of Old Jerry
Cobb, the happy-go-l lucky and care
free stage driver. Her aunts are not
home when she arrives, as she gets in
a day ahead of time, but a bunch of
the neighbours children, abetted by
the loquacious Mrs. Perkins, comes in,
and then the riot of fun is started.
The neat dooryard of the Brickhouse
is the playground for the youngsters,
and when the aunts do arrive they
think a cyclone has struck the place.
In a temper the peppery old-maid
aunt sends the girl to bed with glass
OF water and some bread. That is Re-
becca's welcome into her new home,
where she has come to get an eouca-
ton, so that she can lift the mortgage
from her mothers farm.
How she finally breaks down the
peppery aunt's dislike for her and
makes everybody in the village love
her is shown in the well-developed
plot, which ends four years after the
opening of the play with her gradua
ton from tn local school, at the head
of her class, and the pride of the COM
munity, and also in love.
Jean McAlpine, as Miranda Sawyer,
the peppery aunt of the girl, Is rare
treat and made a very good impress
sion. Old Jerry, the coach driver.
could-not be improved upon. He wore
the smile that won't come off as
though he meant it. and won the
heart of everyone in the audience
for his tenderness towards Becky"
when she ran away in the thunder
storm to his home.
Each of the other members of the
is an artist in his particular
role and improvement could not be de-
sired.
The setting of the play is also Won
derfully true to nature. The thun-
derstorm in the first act Is especially
vivid and realistic and when Old Jerry
rolls in atop an old-fashioned stage
coach with Becky tucked away be-
meath in the cushions the audience
last night broke out in unrestrained
appla use.
The other scenes showing the Saw
yers' barn, the old brick house and a
country cottage were also very nat
ural. The play is the joint labor of
Mrs. Wiggin and Charlotte Thompson.
Next week. "Thurston, the Worlds
will hold down the boards
at the Orpheum.