Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-05-27
RED CROSS PLAYS
A ROUSING SUCCESS.
Artist Amateurs Give Clever
Performance In The Colonial
Theatre.
GRACEFUL DANCERS.
Large And Distinguished Audi
ence Enjoys Creditable Show
For Benefit Of Red
Cross War Fund.

Artist amateurs gave a highly cred
liable performance Saturday matinee
and night in the Colonial Theatre for
the benefit of the Red Cross war fund.
The audience was a large and dis
Itinguished one, as well as appreciative
and enthusiastic.
Preceding the performance of the
two plays, the Butterfly Dance" by
twelve young girls, that had been
given at Mrs. Morton's silver tea for
the Red Cross, was repeated with
equal success.
The flower dance by little Miss Mary
Craven Johnson was beautifully done,
the child entering into the poetry of
the dance with true artistic sense.
Mrs. j. Writ Wilmer who had danced
herself into popular favor at the his
toric pageant on the College campus a
few nights previous, gave an exhibit
tion of interpretive dancing She is
graceful, agile, and altogether charm
ing in personality. Her waltz fam
TASTE" was poetry in motion, and her
"gavotte," a series of graceful poses
and evolutions that pronounced her
the true artist-dancer that she is. Her
sailors hornpipe" in costume was
most fetching and she was given an
ovation.
The one-act comedy, "At Night All
Cats Are Grey" by Lieut.. Robert
Garland, is a misnomer, and the audi
ence is proba bly, wondering yet where
the title comes in. You can't tell a
book by its cover any more than you
can tell a play by it's title. So it is
with this one. The characters were
all we'll cast, and fitted each one to a
nicely Mrs. Wolcott Hall, the woman
in the case. is splendid actress.
There is no suggestion about her of
the amateur The play gave her full
scope for the emotional as well as the
dramatic side of the character, of
which she made the most and very
best Her clever ruse of visiting THE
Mans" apartment in London, where he
was alone. under pretense of having
run away from her hucband," old,
ugly and cruel, but which was part of
the game of a clever Lady Raffies, y
was a capital bit of acting, capably
done
Prof S. S. Handy. the Husband" F"
was well cast. and Mr.. Clifford, as
"The Man. was true to life, easy, ma
tural and altogether finished" in his
Interpretation of the part.
The character songs by Mrs.
Mecleary gave a brilliant touch of the
truly human side of the evenings pro-
gram. Especially effective was the
recitation set to the music of Charles
Parker. THE Spirit of the Red Cross" >"
Mrs. Mecleary recited this in costume
of a Red Cross nurse in a delightfully."-
appealing manner.
The dances of Heinrich Chatin-Hof-
mann were the artistic feature of a
truly artistic program.
The closing number on the program,
two-act farce entitled Suppressed
Desires" was a fitting climax to one
of the very best, if not the best, en-
tertainment presented here by local
amateurs. Psyche Analysis" of
which the theme of the play treated,
would have been as fitting a title.
The stage setting. the atmosphere of
the play; the excellent acting of the
cast, placed all in the class of pro
fessionals Lieut.-Com. and Mrs. ii.
w. Boynton, as Stephen Brewster and
his wife. were admirably cast and
pulled well in harness. As a firm be-
liver in psycho-analysis, whose belief
was not shattered until her pretty lit
tie sister was told by the psychiactric
teacher that she possessed a sup
pressed desire for her sisters hus-
band, Mrs. Boynton proved herselt a
clever actress.
Mrs. Ralph Otis Davis, as Mabel, the
sister was dainty, sweet, winsome
and altogether charming.
She is a clever little actress, and
her naivete made the character de-
lightfully pleasing
The situations throughout the play
were humorous and mirth-provoking,
and the audience showed appreciation