The Washington herald., 1919-10-07
Garrick-Walker whiteslde In ssrh
Master Of Ballantrae.r
~ EARLE DORSEY.


II q subordinate member Of the
walker Whiteside company at the
Garrick last night had not walked
o. in the second act and captured the
hBtrionic honors Of the evening. we
might have capitulated to a sneaking
ida that we'd seen too much drama
laAsly, that our idea Of acting had
ga1e stale and that The Master Of
Bonantrae" was a very good play
vslh q very good cast But Miss May
Buckley, who has q rather secondary
rdA as the deforescent victim of the
plly Villain. came on IN the second act
fog the very good purpose Of demon
stRting that THE Master of Ballan-
trse" has its faults.
n is a good play. however. IL one
tuAges by ordinary standards II has
all the robust. red-blooded atmosphere
that the invalid and anaemic Steven
sou loved to breathe into his work
an1 1t Is interpreted, n large measure.
by q star who knows his business. 1t
enjoys the distinction Of having some
thnhg to tell in the way Of a story
which Is saying heaps-and IL one finds
fault. IL Is largely with detail here
and there in the telling.
0iss May Buckley. however. con-
tributes a bit of emotional acting in
the second act that is absolutely
classic and second to no perform
anse. for its length. that we have
sen in the past twelve months. She
rous in from right stage, drunken.
wrecked victim of a "gentleman's"
incontinence and there is a force
and a power to her lOw-voiced. al
most comic denunciation of her
tr8ducer's ex-fancee that arouses
enthusiasm. Nor does she make the
character aught but what il is-a
woman Of former plebian grace ana
untutored charm-a woman not nee
essarily low but a woman sufficient
ly free of caste ties to become a
rasears plaything.
But the story:
It is strongly reminiscent in at
mosphere. treatment and theme it
self, of that Otis Skinner standby.
The Honor of the Family" 1t is
the story of a Peter Pan of the
aristocracy. a man at ease at courts,
in battle or a tap-room, who re-
turns. apparently from the dead, to
force his younger brother to NIL his
pockets or endure his facile ability
to stain the family escutcheon and
make near-successfuI love to his
younger brothers wife. In its stage
version. the thing becomes large a
portrait OF an amiable scoundrel-a
veritable Philippe Brideau without
the latter's family pride.
Naturally. there deyolves upon the
star the task of filling in the brush's
strokes. shading the background, en-
phasizing the high-lights. toning up
in the detail of the portrait. One
fsncies that Mr.. Whiteside is not
quite up to this sort of portrait
painting. He's a good man. Of course,
but perhaps not with this sort of
work. His impersonation constantly
suffers from comparison with Skin
ner and it is not sufficient variant
TO discourage such comparison and
set him apart in a characterization
Of his own. But these, after ALL are
the technical faults and in the main
Mr.. Whiteside manages to impress
Onn anew as a player of deep and !
vide skill. even though possibly play
ing = game not his own.
A lack of complete familiarity with
this work Of Stevenson's renders us
incompetent to judge whether or not
certain apparent flaws in the tale it.
self were Stevenson's or the adapter's,
but there are scenes and situations
here and there which seem more theat-
rical than dramatic. Frederick Roland
rose to the keener situations with
credit to himself, and his portrayal of
the vacillating. doubling younger son
was well-done. though not with the
skill that Miss Buckley brought to her
part. The same might be said for
Miss Sydney Shields. as his wife. her
Interpretation being marred by an
enunciation that was a bit too en-
phatic. Maurice Barrett contributed
an exotic characterization of an East
Indian servant of the rascally James
Durie and his illustration of a method
of suspending animation. which his
rascally master later practised with
good effect, was one Of the wierd and