The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-04-11
AT THE PLAY.

John Drew who appeared in two
short plays at the Grand Friday night.
has been a matinee idol in the east for
so many years that the men In our
part of the country had come to re-
gard him as a sort of sartorial and
drawing room model and too much OF
favorite with the women to stir
them TO any great demonstration of
regard But he fully redeemed his
credit with the masculine elements of
the community last night and particu-
larly the married men, when he i'm
personated the good natured husband
yielding his will to his wife's whims to
avoid scenes in 1.-The Tyranny of
Tears" 1t was one of the best even
ings at the Grand this theater season.
This play has been presented in To-
peers as a polished and finished actor
in the delineation Of the part of a
popular novelist, a wealthy and con-
ventional man of the world, whose
marriage, after a long bachelorhoOd
of contented freedom had cut him off
from the companionship of his old
friends and reduced him to a state of
submission whenever the sob symp-
toms appear. The play is comedy
of the light sort. offering both instruc-
ton and consolation to the henpecked
husband, for it ends tremendously
with the tears all dried and the man
the master.
The play contains a good deal Of
POutt COHNcISdliOI, PlCdS1At, every Ody
stage condolences, and it's people
coming and going and talking much
in the fashion of people on the earth
only they were all cultured people,
and that includes the secretary, whose
part was ably played by Mary Boland.
And Drew, with his command of facial
expression, his gestures, and his laugh,
now genuine, now satirical looks more
than he says. The lines have much
spontaneous humor, and the whole
cAyVtu ms Fore toll
Laura Hope Crews. as the weeping
wife. gave an exposition of the part
so realistic that the people out in the
audience all looked on with the ex-
preston that said they knew that
~oman's real name and street num-
her. Mary Boland, the stenographer.
had none of the ''gabby," shabby and
gllded ways of stage stenOgraphers in
general. She is pretty and she had the
style that made it plain why the Geo.
Cunning of the play ernest Lawford
by name) lost his cynical heart to her.
Lawford. too. did good work in his
parts in both plays presented last
night. He, with Drew, gave a morn
ing after" scene in the third act that
must have been highly true to life
judging by the chuckling and applause
it got from those in the audience who
know.
But Drew proved another thing last
night at the Grand. He showed that
he can figure in scenes outside the
path of the social lion and hold to
his high standard in doing so. 1.-The
WILL in which he took the leading
part. is a play of a serious nature,
with little sermon against greed. Mr..
Drew, as Philip Ross of the story,
made it clear that he possesses deeper
powers than are ordinarily called out
by the plays he chooses. The drama
was one act play, and coming at the
end of an evening already full enough,
it still interested the audience as COM
pletely as the first performance.
Hubert bruce. in THE WILL" played
the part of feeble old man. losing
his memory. and the bent figure, the
thin treble of his voice, admirably
done by the actor, was touchingly sim
tple and appealing. In the first play
Mr.. bruce appeared as an army Of
ficer. with the grey hair of the mild
debauchee around his temples, and
manner of dressing like coxcomb.
His versatility was an interesting
point of his playing. Drew played a
poor man of thirty, a rich man of fifty
and noblenan of sixty years, and
played them to perfection.
There was a good house at the per-
forpance, and a generous amount of
applause greeted the efforts of the
Performers b. H.