Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-04-29 | Page 9 | Wilkes Players in 'The Claim' do Capital Work

I Wilkes Players in The Claim' Do Capital Work P1 HERE is a season in which most any play will do; also, there is a season when some particular class of play seems most, fitting, most appropriate, the one best vehicle arranged especially to bring out the talents of the various players. This is true in a large measure of "The Claim," the production this week at the Wilkes playhouse. It is a western play. The scenes are laid in a border mining camp. There are scones of the dance hall, the stage coach, and the rough and ready miners of the period are faithfully portrayed by mem-j bers of the company. There is drinking, drink-ing, carousing, and the wild fun that used to please the rough element of those days when such camps existed. But "The Claim" does not refer to a mere mine. It depicts the willful thoughts of a mother, who fancied that she had forgotten her baby girl and could accept a sum of gold in her place. She find's out differently, and "The Claim" is for the possession of her child. She secures her, but here again mother love wins. Realizing that her position in life as a dance hall singer will not permit her to bring up her girl in the path she should lead, and the way in which she, as her mother, would have her go, she surrenders the little girl to the man and his sister who had taken care of her for years, and who have, by a fortunate mining deal, recently become very wealthy. Ralph Cloninger, as "John McDonald," owner of the Gopher mine, is the rich man and the one who has raised little Goldie from the time her mother gave her up as a baby. The part is well suited to the direct manner in which Mr. Cloninger Clo-ninger usually portrays his leads, and ranks -with any character role he has essayed this season. Nana Bryant finds in the character of "Belle Jones" a part well suited to the emotional efforts in which she excels. The part gives her a rare chance to display her talent when she depicts the life of a woman inured to the western saloon and dance room. The other parts are well cast among the personnel of the Wilkes stock players. play-ers. Miss Cornelia Glass, as the sister of John McDonald, who has mothered little Goldie since she was an infant in arms, essays rather a hard role with honor to herself. Cliff Thompson, A. McNulty, Ernest Van Pelt, Frederick Moore and Huron Blyden are all quite natural as miners of the days along about '49. Claire Sinclair is immense as "Mrs. Pansy Bryan," the boss of the El Dorado hotel and everything else around the camp.