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Show fftlpr '"On Wearlorks 11 cMunmaled , Kfffer oPlcttfonn& By GEORGE JEAN NATHAN. those melodramatic trickeries of the show-shop of which William B Gillette is tbe native dean due JL little mechanical, scenic, electrical elec-trical and physical devices by which the pulse of the stalls is inflamedBayard in-flamedBayard Veiller fn hts "Within "With-in the Law" and now again in his "The Thirteenth Chair" has proved himself an adroit fellow. The noiseless noise-less pistol that smashed the vase, the towei searchlight that flashed upon the prostrate body, and such like stratagems which in the first-named first-named melo-piece tickled the excit-abilities excit-abilities of, the populace. Hsv. Veiller now, in the latter melo-plece, not only in the way of effectiveness duplicates, du-plicates, but surpasses. Kor he realizes, it would seem, that in the matter of melodrama a single such prestidigitation ;s ot" infinitely more Positive, effect upon the mob emoiion than a thousand such lines as 'Tvlove one inch, Jem Pal ion. and I'll shove daylight clean through you." And so, as did Max Maurey of the famous Guignol in "The Closed Door" before him. Mr. Veiller sends the i'-' y- v -t , y y vtA 4V' .v-. ',-, hh - 1 - ' 4 w ' -J y i 14 ihit i .i 1 ' - f v f fin lit U , f . J ' 'x Igr ' 1 1 "!', 4 - ' - . ; in C- c y , " i r bi IS-, 4 J i I i 1 i , - r b .-- : i VI 71 y . yf Jj '4 ' r 4 Flore Evalles, who plays all th e wicked roles in the ballets which will be seen here when the Diaghileff Ball et Paisse plays three performances at the Salt Lake theater December 22 and 2 3. Mile. Eevalles is here shown in her famous costume as the White Sultana in "Scheherzazade." It w-as designed de-signed b7 Leon Bakst and is a gorgeous oriental creation, heavily trimmed with jewels and metals - ' spectatorial spine a-shiver by causing: caus-ing: a nor mysteriously to open by a spirit hand (nee a black string) and by kin-iivd devices of an unmistakable unmistak-able theatrical value. And so, as a further result, his "Thirteenth Chair" is returned a melodrama that cannot fall to cajole the vertebrae ot the public. The slase-trlfk melodrama is, of all melodramas, the , most Interesting from a laboratory point of view. From the French melodrama "S. O. S." with its effective trick of a steamship's , sudden stopping In mid-ocean (gained very simply bv causing a staaehand who has hee:i pounding upon the floor off stage with a felt-covered mallet suddenly to desistl to the easily recalled re-called Gillette lighted cigar, mirror and panel-hid spv-hole wiles, the proscenium Irickerics of the politer sun and gore dramaturgy never fail to achieve the desired excitation in the playhouse. A half dozen such .lUi'fjleriea may well guarantee the popular sliced-. of almost anv melodrama, melo-drama, whatever otherwise the na- Jure of its content. And Mr. Veiller has incorporated in his In test exhibition exhi-bition at least that number. Sowewhat Gruesome. y . T1""; s "The Thirteenth c nan- has been murdered. His iriend is Bent upon discovering the criminal, lie seeks out. to this end a spiritualist and connives with her to profess a trance and, while thus s.ioozing to mention the name of tho suspect n th suspect's presence and sion S a th6 "tter's confes-A confes-A party of thirteen is brought together, to-gether, including the suspect. ' ring is formed, the company holds hands, the lights are extinguished, and the medium, following the man's interrogation interro-gation as to who it was who murdered mur-dered his friend, is about to utter the name of the suspect when a shriek ij-l'l the man i, found stabbed to death from behind in exactly ex-actly the manner in which the nrt man was done to death. The balance of the play is devoted to determining who committed the crime, whv he committed it and how he committed it. The knife that did the stabhing is mis.-ng. No one has let go hands during the seance. The windows and doors had been securelv fastened before be-fore the medium went into her pseudo-trance and. in addition, the medium had been tied, by skeptics, hand Rnd foot to a chair. One bv one. the author au-thor bring" the characters under su-picion su-picion and one by one lifts the guilt until, trick upnn trick has been exhausted ex-hausted and the murderer of the second sec-ond man and the murderer of the first man are found to be one and the same person. Well Worked Out. A holding fiction, well worked out, despite certain present incongruities that might very easily be remedied. i The opening door, for instance, now left for solution to the audience's imagination, might for the purposes pf the play bettor be explained away by tne medium in the scene directly preceding the incident, inasmuch as the medium has already confes?ed to deceit and inasmuch as frank trickerv in this cafe wouid better point the episode and its denouement. But the melodrama, notwithstanding Its periodic peri-odic weaknessesIts shiftings of suspicion sus-picion are at times somewhat too transparent Is a very good specimen of its kind and keeps its spectators in their chairs until the final asbestos. The reservation of the surprise and the consequent misleading of the audience au-dience until 11 o'clock, here so successfully suc-cessfully managed, once again prove bo-- little about the theater those be-whiskeied be-whiskeied professors know who compose com-pose manuals of playwriting warning against such procedures. Miss Margaret Wicherly plays the role of the medium and makes a nice job of it. Harrison Hunter Is rather too much the elocutionist as the police po-lice inspector. The exhibit is carefully care-fully staeM. The srene of the play is the Forty-eighth Street theater. Good Farce Writer. Upon the stage of the Harris theater. thea-ter. Avery Hopwood, in "Our Little V ife,' once aain demonstrates that he Is probably I he best writer of farce we Amerir-ans have. There is something some-thing to Hopwood's farcical writings that none of hrs local contemporaries seem able to achieve a sophistication, a politeness, a deHcacv. an eve to character and to the foibles of humanity, hu-manity, a humor that springs naturally, natural-ly, logically, from sources other and more flevated than green waistcoats, f;it policemen and bridal couches. Hopwoo.l's farces are world farces. not mew).. Broadway farr-es. He writes with the eye of a Gaul, the brond stroke of a German. There is a literary quality to his work a fine (Continued on Following Page.) In New York Theaters (Continued From Preceding Page.) ! relief from the hack ink spilled fo I promiscuously and ceaselessly upon the native fa rep manuscript. 1 lopwood's stories never amount to much. There is probably less of plot to his pieces than there is to the least of French farces, of which farces this pkiy writer is evidently a sedulous sedu-lous student. Hut so adorned with wit are his endeavors that his even-intrs even-intrs are made to pass amid a tribute of honestly won smiles and laughs. Flimsy, but Well Put. "Our Little Wire" is the story of a highly flirtatious married woman and lie r corps of admirers. To lest the boundaries of her behavior, the iady's husband persuades a bachelor friend to invito his spouse to a muinicht supper. The excitements that crow-out crow-out of this cpiso-e con.-nitnie the i maior portion of the enteria in mmt. tale flimsv enough nt bottom, but spun with such an arch humor and so genuine a wit as com pie t el v to osteopath the bone oomique. "She's a poor, misled cirl." says one woman to the bachelor, shoving a young woman into a bandv entrance, "and I'm going to take her in hand and look after her. I'll put her closing the door) in the Home of the Good Shepherd." "Yes," observes the bachelor drilv. "hut tint isn't the Home of the Good Phepherd; that's mv bedroom." Miss Martraret Illinsrtnn is delightful delight-ful as the super-susceptible wife. Her performance is as good a thing as the native farce staee has seen in several sev-eral years. And Robert Fischer is amusine as a waiter e.iger to asist his emplover in the laiter's affairs of the heart. Others in the company, and not particularly competent, are Walter Jones and Loweli Sherman. The plav iuis been well staged by Krig.-ir Selw-yn and is distinctly worth seeing. U is right risque, but nevr ! indelicate. I know of no Frenchman living today who could have written tho farce with -A more savorv air. I |