Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-01-01
Paul Armstrong; Drama Fur
niShes Rare Opportunity for
Strong and Virife Work
THE CAST:

Gordon l.aylock .... MIR. George Webb
| Connolly .......... Mr. Guy Hltner
Flynn .-....:.....Mr, K. NJ. Barnett
Ruth Lake Miss Blanche Burns
Mrs. Lake . Miss Marie Van Tassell
Bellboy .............M MIR Pat" Pryor
Valet .............M Mr.. Bert Chapman
William Lake Mr.. Cliff Thompson
George Bruce $500. Mr. Harold Castle
"A swift moving, tense and often
grim drama is that of The Deep Pur-
Iple," PAUL Armstrong; play of the
New York half-world which was pre-
scented at the BijOu last night by the
All-Star Players.
Set in a low key that holds the au-
dience nerved for desperate. action
from the opening scene, the play is
sometimes melodrama, sometimes
straight dramatic writing. And it car
ries an amazing punch throughout.
Last night the Bijou had wel-filled
house Outside the New Year merri-
ment was in the air; mirth and jollitF
reigned amid loud hilarity. And yet
the lure of carnival crowds could not
draw a member of the audience away
after the first gripping scene. This is
the. sort Of play that gets over" in
Honolulu and holds the witnesses of
its grim scenes breathless with sus-
penSc.
The story, briefly, revOlVes around
the scheme of two, crooks to lure
western mining engineer into "badg-
err game" in New York-the badger
game" it is explained, being an at
tempt to blaekmail on the part of an
alleged husband of girl who gets
the engineer into a compromising sit
uation
In this case the girl is the innocent
tool and almost the victim of one of
the crooks, who has made love to her
and succeeded in getting her to leave
her home and come to New York with
him under promise of marriage. He
heads straight for crooks haunt, the
kept by Kate Fallon, a
woman with past, now living clean
ly. Kate rebels at the plan to trim"
the Westerner as we'll as to victimize
the girl Another westerner~ enters,
a man on whose head is a price for
the killing of other men, a man start |
ed on the wrong path through no fault
of his Own and now striving to get
back into the straight path.
Action 5Sxfft.
ID With stkfse strongiy-colored charac-
ters, high8action is inevitable. The /
western killer" and the crooks. quar-
rel, the westerner goes to Jail and the
crooks proceed with their plan to trap |
the other man from the west, the min
ing engineer The working out of the
story brings one tense situation after
another in rapid succession. -.
Roles big with opportunity are Civ
IN to practically every member of the
,ast The man who is so game and
rue that it is said of him you're the
,amest man ever new-you're bred
n the purple!"-this man is William
AXE, a young New Yorker who goes
o Idaho and makes good as a mining
Engineer, returns and is marked for
laughter by the crooks. The part,
ich with virility. is assigned to Mr.,
Tiff Thompson, who gives strong
Mr.. Thompson's me-
hods are sure and finished. He be-
,ins his scenes quietly. with some
hing of the careless sang-froid of the
festerner and something of the polish
d courtesy Of the east. He rises to
he clmaxes finely as game man and
quick one should This is the best
hing he has done since coming to
To the writer's mind, the role of .
late Fallon is the most interesting u,
f the play Miss Oakley has here a
art that is as golden with possibili-
les as that of Maggie Pepper. And
he fulfills them Kate Fallon is a
woman: there is little ,
ghtness or JOY in her life. But there
) strength, purpose for the future,
fer vocabulary is the expressive ar O.,
OF of crooks and the New York po- ,,
ee force tinged with a woman's elo-
uenee. Miss Oakley's ability to han
lie this character is undoubted and
he has tuned to the role to suit the .
ense, low key of the entire produc-
ion. She mounts to her big moments
18th certainty and secure effect.
And so does Mr. George Webb. who
lays the role of Gordon LaylOck, the !
,estern killer" During two acts he
; out of the action, but in the other