New Britain herald., 1917-02-13
NAYLOR PLAYERS IN
 B|G DRAMATIC" HIT
"Trail Of Lonesome Pine" Proves
 Best Offering Of Season

In "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" which opened at the Lyceum last night the Walter Naylor players have essayed their most elaborate production since coming to New Brit ain Judging from the interest dis played by an audience that braved a budding blizzard to see the show, and the manner in which Eugene Wal ter's dramatization of John Foxs novel was recieved last night the Nay iorI players will also experience their busiest week of the present season. If this play does not draw theater-goers bX the score then it is because New Britain has lost all sense in the ar tistic because it's people have given Up all the ties that bind to the world Of theatricals.
 Miss Virginia Perry the leading iady Of the Naylor players brings to the play an interpretation of June, the central character in the play. which is away above the standard usually set by stock players. Those who have read the novel written by John Fox, Jr., will immediately see the pure resemblance to June in the portrayal of this part by Miss Perry
 Her dialect is at no time overdrawn, her part at no moment over played.
 There are many incidents in the lie of Jnne that stamp her apart from the ordinary girl. Her quaint nome in the Blue Ridge mountains with its wild environs have fitted her as thing apart from the world hnoWn to men of the city. It is here She IS found by Jack Hale, a young engineer who goes into the fastness or Cumberland Gap to make his for tune. Jack Hale, played by Philip en1n, has as working partner Bob berkley' played by Ralph Murphy
 what haprens when these two are brought in contact with the moun- talheers. the men folk in whose midst June Is raised. is a part of the story that stamps The Trail of the Lone some Line as a drama typically American. Its scenes are set in a part of old South known even to this day
 Men or the type of Hale and Berk- ,ey, city folk, are looked upon as
 1urrlners by June's people who arc IolllVers and who for years have been carrying on feud with the Fallons. According to the code of the feud it IS shoot on sight, As Junes father, harles MHlott Who made his premier appearance before New Britain au- "1ehce last night, proves an actor of eN'raord'nafH ability. He figures in many o1 the nigh spots of the play ana acqultS h1nself in grand style, "ha1 though then may be a few op- Dortunitics for polishing.
 It falls to the lot of Miss Dorothea Antel to play the part of Loretty Tol- liver, the little cousin of June, and it is indeed treat to see this per. :ornancc. Loretty. a wild barefoot urchin of the mountains is ever ready 10 tease and taunt June her elder by some years. What I1oretty has to ray is mostly about June's beau from the city, Jack Hale. and the way in which Loretty says it almosts sta1ts anotEer ferd. Gossip has been rife in the mountains. gossip started pE the enemies of the Tollivers, ana when Loretty starts her "banterlnG, she being q TollivcT, the last coal IS added to the burning fire raging Iii poor June's bosom. Miss Antel IS 10 be congratulated for adding so much human interest to a. play that IS tee;ning with life of the mountains. With Victor Beecroft who plays in the character opposite her she must trudge the cold boards of the stage in bare feet. And, with the thermom~ eter lowering close to the zero mark this is no snecure. Miss Perry also has to undergo the same ''Trilby' or deal.
 To give fair description of the many emotions experienced by June would require some eight or ten col umns John Fox, IT,. required a com plete novel. Eugene Walter spun T four-act play around the same activi- ties Suffice it to say that with her cousin, the nagging Dave Tolliver,-a rart played somewhat too intensely by Harry K. Hamilton who last night