The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 4, 1901, Page 12

THE SUNDAY Revolutionary Play By HE Fad of the J. b;;{el : Frawley. Revolutiona th r. As a mat back something not have its ling novel, the beginning Carleton was Cary - SNELL] THREAT TC THE INDIAN u see, tne lme was not yet ripe. The had not come, and Carleton was not v it. He had to accept the ffer the loss and kick himself for having tried to create public ta Anl I verily kelieve tha best of the lot—better t er scored suc s ts, until the name of the been a word of good omen rouble” was o gocd that it c ton whe but I could theme was V Delaware. It has an Francisco, by the way; 3 dnys well’s i I am rather pro: come to think of it, that I played in the first and the best, as I firmly believe, of the series But a little success in not = the play. cisco @id too. 1 suppose the whole secret was that the reaction from the problem piay had not arrived. Artificial studies of decadent so- Ciety were then a ragmg fad—they were fin de s . they were wearisome, but they were popular. is only now that the public has grown thoroug that sort of thing and is ciamo wholesome plays. 1f those old Carleton’s couid be re ed this season they ought to make big 3 £ The most of the group of Revolutionary dramas have been written from moveis, 2nd the fad for these novels has perhaps been directly r for the dramatic fad; but nevertheie it must have come 2lf. Theater-goers are k of the Th good, , sound “A" Colonial Girl” was produced when the fashion was still in its mtancy, (wo years ago. It never madje a great success ew York. on produced in th Jul.a Dean in the ait of the piece. [ and did well— il Comp Janice Me 1 Hold” and = X 2 Leen the reign book: have good dr the best of dramatizations. ) Frohman by a man named Rose, & way that Rose slammed those plays to- gether got to be a standing joke at the club. Anything goes, so long as it moves in the Washington atmosphere, was the motto that Rose went on; and we used to ask him when he came i “How many plays have you written this afterncon, Rose?” That’s as much work as he usually puts on them—an afternoon. That is why, in spite of the raging fad, none of those plays can last. They had popular su for the people were ready to swallow that swash- buckled In the time of Washington; but the critics were hard on all of them. They held big possibilities, but these possibiii- ties were sadly neglected. “‘Janice Meredith” gave a pretty part to Mary Mannering, in_which she opened her career as a star. Janice is a_charming girl and Miss Mannering was able to give the role all the charm it deserved; but the play as a whole was weakly worked out. Fine dramatic _situations were missed, characters were flimsily devel- oped. In spite of all this, though, the play had a big run and reached the point of success where the Janice Meredith curl was a part of fashionable hairdressing, and that was a sign that couldn’t be over- looked. “To H. and to Hold” was pfayed prin- cipally by Miss Isabel Irving and Robert Lorraine, a young actor whom Mr. Froh- ran brought across the water for the purt of hero. He was rather too much of the drawing room type for as stirring a play as that. he same appl John Drew in ; public simply wouldn’t have him in colo- nLial cosiume. John has set fashions for tailoring and haberdashery too long for the public to bear with him in kmcker- bockers. 1f he is brandishing a sword with one hand you expect to see him bal- ance a teacup with the other. So he had a sorry time with a part that should have been given to Hackett, that was meant for Hackett, and that Hackett was born purposely for if ever man was. He wouid have been idolized in the role by night as well as by matinee, for his delightful per- sonality would have been one with the hero’s “Darcy of the Guards” is one of the-new- est of the school. It was written by Ship- man_and given its initial production in San Francisco by Henry Miller. Its worth has hardly been tested as yer. Although we talk of the “Washington atmosphere” in these pieces, Washington himself does not appear in any of them. Experiments in that line , have always proved failures. There was a play called “Betsy Ross,” in which Washington to the life appeared; the man who played the part had a perfect make- work was dignified a r the public wouldn’t stand for it. been the same old story with Lincoln. Those two men are our two national roes, and we have made them sort of myths that can't be represented tage without a jar to our patri- sensibilities So experience has taught the present playwrights of Revolutionary drama to write around Washington and not let him appear on the boards in person. ¢ The play “Toll Gate Inn,” which we produce this week, is written by a young actor of Port Huron, Mich. He has had very little experience, but that little has been good. His two or three plays done well. So when I came across thi he was producing it in the Northwest with a company of his own that he had gath- ered—I looked at it once, then a second time, and I decided there was something in it. A great deal. I hope. The principal character is a_half-breed, a French Indian, a despised fellow, who js in truth the here that nome has thought him. The character is fine and streng; full «f Indlan reserve and bravery, BROTHER s T = =7 HIDING THE REFVGEE