THE THEATERS

"The Scarlet Fox," a play by Willard Mack, presented at the Theatre Masque by James W. Elliott with the following cast: Henry Smithers  Victor R. Beecroft Jenkins  Orville O., Harris Eric Hammersley  Arthur Wellesley Michael Devlin  Willard Mack John Christansen  Hans Sandquist Novak  Victor Esker Ling Foo Loo  Sam Lee Harry Spatz  Joseph Sweeney "Swede" Cora  Marie Chambers Kathlyn McGuire  Katherine Wilson Martha  Alice Moe Trixie  Helen Handin Cherry  Betty Brenska Bessle  Beatrice Banyard Tommy McGuire  Clark Marshall

Scenes:

Act 1. Scene 1--The Alley. Scene 2--The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Barracks. Act II. Two-weeks later, The House of Cora. Act III. One hour later. The Cellar of Ling.

The action of this play occurs in the small town of Drumheller, Alberts, a coal mining community on the Canadian National Railroad, seventy miles northeast of Calgary. The story is borrowed intact from the Royal Mounted Records of Drumheller's last coul strike.

IT SEEMED probable for a moment last night that Sergeant Willard Mack, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, would be out-diced in his conflict with Joseph Sweeney, the slickest dope-vender between Winnipeg and Vancouver. The sergeant, all ablaze in his scarlet tunic, had ventured into Hip Lung's basement laundry in search of murderers; and he was caught there like a brilliant parrot in a cage. Sweeney, a mean devil, had handcuffed the gorgeous fellow and was bossing him around at the point of a gun. Just as we were prepared to go home with the Sergeant's death-words resonant in our ears there was an odd occurrence. From two soiled-clothes baskets there sprang, unexpectedly, an equal number of Royal Canadian Mounted Policemen, who took the situation well in hand.

Until that juncture, "The Scarlet Fox" had been rather a nifty throwback, with Mr. Mack and his dauntless associates in credible controversy with the sins and shames of rural Alberto. In the second act all of us had been intrigued, as they say in "Hedda Gabler," by the photographic reproduction of a frontier lupinar, if one may be permitted to call it so. Wild ladies of the night held outrageous wassail with officers of the law, and the wicked tinkle of best glasses accompanied the loose music of a brothel piano. Beneath the revelry a vigilant Justice brooded; for Sergeant Mack and his men, though drinking and disorderly were on duty bent. They were present only because it was their function to find out who had shot Tom McGuire, a well known mining boss, depositing his corpse in the alley back of Swede Cora's place.

Mr. Mack or Sergeant Michael Devlin as he is called in the play-bill, was a fussy and bumptious redcoat, though shrewd, daring and romantic withal. He was making love to dope flend's little sister as the curtain fell after all the villians were on their way to the gallows. "The Scarlet Fox," excepting several ridiculous moments of April-fooling, is a pretty fair cock-and-bull dream. In it you may enjoy some unbelievably veracious acting by Miss Marie Chambers as the chatelaine of a Canadian bagnlo; by Mr. Sam Lee, as a canny Chinaman, and by Mr. Sweeney as Harry Spats, who combines the business of a village haberdasher with that of a king of the dope-sellers. It is worth a vialt to "The Scarlet Fox" to see Mr. Sweeney and Miss Chambers turn the vivid dross of a gaudy melodrama into the real theatrical doing.

Scenes:

Act 1. Scene 1--The Alley. Scene 2--The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Barracks. Act II. Two-weeks later, The House of Cora. Act III. One hour later. The Cellar of Ling.

The action of this play occurs in the small town of Drumheller, Alberts, a coal mining community on the Canadian National Railroad, seventy miles northeast of Calgary. The story is borrowed intact from the Royal Mounted Records of Drumheller's last coul strike.

IT SEEMED probable for a moment last night that Sergeant Willard Mack, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, would be out-diced in his conflict with Joseph Sweeney, the slickest dope-vender between Winnipeg and Vancouver. The sergeant, all ablaze in his scarlet tunic, had ventured into Hip Lung's basement laundry in search of murderers; and he was caught there like a brilliant parrot in a cage. Sweeney, a mean devil, had handcuffed the gorgeous fellow and was bossing him around at the point of a gun. Just as we were prepared to go home with the Sergeant's death-words resonant in our ears there was an odd occurrence. From two soiled-clothes baskets there sprang, unexpectedly, an equal number of Royal Canadian Mounted Policemen, who took the situation well in hand.

Until that juncture, "The Scarlet Fox" had been rather a nifty throwback, with Mr. Mack and his dauntless associates in credible controversy with the sins and shames of rural Alberto. In the second act all of us had been intrigued, as they say in "Hedda Gabler," by the photographic reproduction of a frontier lupinar, if one may be permitted to call it so. Wild ladies of the night held outrageous wassail with officers of the law, and the wicked tinkle of best glasses accompanied the loose music of a brothel piano. Beneath the revelry a vigilant Justice brooded; for Sergeant Mack and his men, though drinking and disorderly were on duty bent. They were present only because it was their function to find out who had shot Tom McGuire, a well known mining boss, depositing his corpse in the alley back of Swede Cora's place.

Mr. Mack or Sergeant Michael Devlin as he is called in the play-bill, was a fussy and bumptious redcoat, though shrewd, daring and romantic withal. He was making love to dope flend's little sister as the curtain fell after all the villians were on their way to the gallows. "The Scarlet Fox," excepting several ridiculous moments of April-fooling, is a pretty fair cock-and-bull dream. In it you may enjoy some unbelievably veracious acting by Miss Marie Chambers as the chatelaine of a Canadian bagnlo; by Mr. Sam Lee, as a canny Chinaman, and by Mr. Sweeney as Harry Spats, who combines the business of a village haberdasher with that of a king of the dope-sellers. It is worth a vialt to "The Scarlet Fox" to see Mr. Sweeney and Miss Chambers turn the vivid dross of a gaudy melodrama into the real theatrical doing.