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Show II e XXtitf the Fir4rt JVfighterf. Ng II ! Attractions for week of June 25: 1KB Salt Lake Theatre E. H. Sothern in "If I Were B$fl King-" Thursday, Friday and Saturday. H The Grand "Uncle Tom's Cabin," all week. jBwtH 3 tiX Gil HB1HJI BV"i n 5Ktoav& H 9 ; Justin McCarthy reading MS. of " If I wore King" to H m E. H. Sothern. From The Theatre. II B B. H. Sothern will appear at the Theatre next H Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the romantic H I drama, f,If I Were King." Those who have read M H this absorbing story by Justin McCarthy will m il probably be eager to see Mr. Sothern in the lead- ii ing role. The plot hinges upon the melodramatic P career of the poet-rogue, Francois Villon. H In the iirst scene Villon declaims some of his M verses ridiculing the King of France in the pres- f ence of the monarch, not knowing that it is he. 1 As a penalty, the King makes him perform an M extremely difficult task to save himself from the 1 guillotine. 'He is, created Constable of France for il a single week, In which time he is supposed to fl f vindicate hiB criticisms of the government. Some 'H time before this Villon has rescued a court lady SB from a wooer who was annoying her, and when she met him later on the Constable, not recogniz-II recogniz-II I ing him' she solicited aid for "Villon. When his W identity Is disclosed she recoils from him at first jf on account of his low birth, but when his sen- jfl, tence of death Is commuted to one of exile, she IJP pleads with the King for permission to share her m lover's exile. M With this more or less simple plot, Mr. Mc- fij Carthy has written a very "thrilling play, which M has been one of the season's greatest successes. No casual reador of fiction, who was entranced by the story of "David Harum," ever imagined that in that delightful narrative there were any dramatic possibilities. And there are none, save when all the grand emotions and loveablo attributes of the genial "hoss" trader and banker are divulged to the popular pop-ular eye by so consummate an artist as Mr. W, H. Crane. It Is probable that few other artists on the American stage could have developed so splendid splen-did -a characterization as did Mr. Crane in the role of the rural banker who won the hearts of the trans-Mifisissippi public long ago. It is a play utterly devoid of melodramatic incident, and yet Mr. Crane is able to keep an audience alternately alter-nately in laughter and tears throughout the per formance. Nothing that was ever seen here could be more superb than the scene in which Mr. Crane, theretofore smiling, affably sarcastic and urbane, delivers the touching soliloquy before the picture of his dead son. Mr. Crane has trhat wonderful won-derful art, which, to use a trite expression, Is above art, of giving a whole volume of human life and its emotions with a single gesture, and nothing that Mr. Crane has ever done here has been performed with such a display of indescribable inde-scribable perfection and repression of dramatic art. Every one who saw him last night will forever for-ever recall Mr. Crane when he remembers the guileless banker of Homeville guileless in everything every-thing save the trading of horses. And the star of this performance did not come, as Is usually the case with actors of renown who vouchsafe their services in the West, with a company com-pany devoid of merit. Kate Meek as Aunt Polly Bixby, sister of the hero, was so real that she appeared to have stepped out of the pages of Mr. Westcott's book, and Charles Jackson as the clerk of the banker did the role of that pompous young man with an artistic finish that was worthy cf very high commendation. The other members of the cast also presented some clever impersonations, impersona-tions, and the management are certainly entitled to sincere euloglums for having brought with them a. company so uniformly capable and intelligently apreciative of the possibilities of the subordinate characters. t v & "East Lynrie," presented by Mr. Herman and the Warde company during last week at the Grand, drew some large audiences. H Miss Emma Ramsey wnbe the chief attrac- B tlon at a- tabelnacle concert to be given on May 29th, the date" of President Roosevelt's arrival. B This will really be Miss Ramsey's debut before B' a Salt Lake audience, as this rarely gifted singer B of Zion was a'fllicted with a severe cold on the B occasion, of her former appearance. She" will be assisted by the tabernacle choir and Professor McClellan will officiate as accompanist. Salt Lake is to be congratulated upojj the splendid performances which will be present-m present-m ed during the closing weeks of the the-I the-I atrical season. Mr. Sothern.wll be-the-star dur- ing the three evenings at 'n'e' close of next week, and. on the week. Allowing every one will 'be elter-I elter-I tained by the sparkling ventures of Mr. Nat Grood- win. |
