The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-01-09
ARluseReHtS
New Lyric.

Matthew Arnold might have had
lEer Rose lH mind when he wrote
HIs essay uu tHu absence u the sign
post tI WuoeFa literature and drama,
Tor this mr,uurawa from the master
Workshop of David Bsasco abounds iH
unexpected thrills, holds suspense 10
the last 10 tnuilrd q large audience at
the New Lyric FRIDAY night.
We leave our hero swimming the tide,
q knife in his teeth, pursued 10y blood
! hounds his wuuld-bg rcsCucr tied up
| by the thumbs. meanwhile let us return
% the Lady Evelyn. into whose face
Harold Aruitage was splitting insults
several hundred pages back
Nothing Ike this In Tiger Rose.
The finish IS characteristic, The I'M
| tutored, though finely bred young ami
mai. Rose BoCion. the wells uf her pas
sclf-sacrlficC, agrees to marry, to even
| join the church, but, anyway, to 20
with her lover, accused Of a capital
ofiense. even to prison,
No wedding bells. no let's to
church. no pairing off at the last as
though there was another flood toward.
But asked II she would lay aside
thoughts 81 iufidelity bred into her soul
from parentaRe and cling TO her man,
she closes the show with Sure as hell
I will"
Cultured audience as it was Thurs
day night. discriminating II you VIII,
the spell Of the play was such, the
wtchery OF the setting into which Be-
lasco has hurled elemental human pas
sions into the Cauldron Of circum-
stances was 80 enchanting that me
| final curtain was down before nine
! teuths OF the audience had remembered
to reach for their wrans,
The blood of a Castilian, perhaps,
| flowing in her veins, the temperament
Of an opera singer IN her nature, no
better successor to Miss Leona Ulrleh
In the part Of the impulsive French
Canadian could be conceived that Maria
Ascaraga. She Is a find Of Belasco
from the ranks OF the embryonic prima
and other donnas Of the Metropolitan
She Is both lady and the tiger. Choose
both
Each character in the play, with
probably one exception, is especially
adapted to his or her part. No better
drlineation of q sturdy, God loving
Scotchman has ever been seen here
than the Hector Macollins Of Elmer
Grandin He must have It bred In the
bone His care Of the little girl thrown
by fate into his hands, his steadfastness
In pursuit when she Is believed in dan
ger, his graphing Of his friends with
hoops Of steel and even in the little
details OF the part mark him a Gonsum-
mate actor, In calling down the ven
geance OF God on an eyildoer or IN
jugs of scotch" after wee nippy,
he is Infinitely careful as to detail,
Fashioned by nature in voice and
physique admirably for the part, Jack
+. Bertin's Or CusiCk was heroic, Sim
liar in some respects to the frontier
doctor of our own frontier days, his
part, In the action Of the play largely
thankless one. stands out clearly
Bernard ], McOwen, as Constable Mike
DeVlin Of Royal Northwest mounted
police, gives n characteristic imperson-
alton OF that fine body of men, and yet
there creeps in enough of the copper"
idea, almost American, to make the
gallery wish fervently for Rose to
shoot him, as she threatens TO do In
the third act.
Scenically elaborate, no detail to add
realism to the play is left out. The
storm scene in the second act is realism
itself from the Tapping of the curtains
to the crescendo Of the thunder clap,
Melodrama? Yes. Tiger Rose" Is
melodrama. So is Job. SO Is "the
Acts of the Apostles" Tiger Rose"
viii be repeated Friday and Saturday
nights with matinee Saturday after
noon, NED COURTNEY.