Chicago Tribune – Monday, February 28, 1916 – Page 14

Triangle Opens at the Colonial

Daphne And The Pirate

Fine Arts – Triangle

Directed by W.C. Cabanne

Presented at the Colonial

The Cast:

Daphne La Tour ……………………. Lillian Gish
Philip de Mornay ……………….. Elliott Dexter
Jamie D’Arcy ………………………. Walter Long
Prince Henri ………………..……. Howard Gaye
Franchette ………………….…….. Lucille Young
Francois La Tour ….…… Richard Cummings
Duc de Mornay ………….…..…. Jack Cosgrave

By Kitty Kelly

Triangle tried it again, on an invitation houseful on Saturday night and the regular public yesterday. In spite of Mr. S. L. Rothapfel, it is not yet a perfect accomplishment, though it is much better. We have heard much of “how different this is going to be,” but it appears as if somebody has underestimated the sophistication of us inhabitants of these far frontiers, for truth to tell, there was no such startle as, for instance, when first we saw that charming Italian garden stage setting with which E. Q. Cordner introduced us to distinctive photoplay presentation during the Strand’s tenure of Orchestra hall – a setting which to our mind has not yet been surpassed in this town.

At the Colonial the curtain rises on a lovely vista of blueish green land and water glimpsed through a flower entwined trellis, but there is a festive light machine somewhere which takes away the fairy feeling, for, like the barking dog, the stage setting is more effective in the dark. The light reveals it as an ordinary landscape backdrop, pasteboard shrubbery set about, artificial balusters and trellis twined over with vivid artificial flowers, and the interminable marble pillars wherein the imitativeness of the marble is matter beyond dispute, all of it enshrining the orchestra. The setting receives attention because it we have with us always, with the prospects of forever – limited by contract machinations – gazing at the cloying Cupids fluttering about the frame. The program comes and goes. At present it is over long, with so much of scenic, topic, and educational dispensation, plus several musical numbers that it approximates in length the old double header bill at the Studebaker that used to make our heads swim.

This week’s feature, “Daphne and the Pirate,” in which Lillian Gish succeeds herself, as the Colonial’s heroine, remembering back to “The Birth of a Nation,” is a charming thing. It is not Fine Arts’ best, by a good deal, but it is so much better than many other producers’ “bests” that it pleases and invites on back to see more under its trade mark.

***

Miss Gish, a delightful person and player, is no comedian. But as Daphne she is nearly enough such to be enjoyable. The spitfire nature emanating from her cameo demureness, by its uniqueness, conquers.

Costume plays have hard work to reach the public heart but this one laid in the colonial days of bride buying, and having to do with pirates, an undesired suitor, and a bold lover, has a way with it that wins.

Elliot Dexter, the hero, is a player of sterling worth. Technically, the story is very successful. It is exceedingly well made in its introduction and linking up of situations. Even in spite of its too, too hurried projection on Saturday night, which made little Miss Gish, who inclines to angularity of movement anyhow, hop about like a jumping Joan, its good points shone out.