Life — March 6, 1890 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- LIFE: A RELIGIOUS PLAY. x R. AUGUSTIN DALY has added boldness to his other qualities as a manager. Few, if any, managers who know the American public as well as he would dare produce “The Prayer” on an American stage. No matter how well handled a religious motive may be, both by dramatist and actors, it is a dangerous element for the stage. To take that part of the Lord's Prayer which teaches submission to the divine will and intercession for our enemies and make it the motive of a dra- matic composition shows boldness in the playwright, but boldness not so great as that of the manager who dares pro- duce it before a public more sensitive than any in the world on matters pertaining to religion. But Mr. Egan's work in adapting Coppée’s one-act piece has been so well done and it is acted with such perfect sin- cerity that not even the most sensitive of spectators can take offense, except on the general ground that sacred subjects should never be the matter of theatrical performance. Miss Ada Rehan’s acting in this little piece is admirable. She is the central character, in fact the only one of any im- portance, and it is more than doubtful if any other actress on our stage to-day could give the part of Afademorselle Rose an interpretation that would save the piece from general condemnation. Miss Rehan brings to it the earnestness of the true artist and the religious fervor of a woman's heart. To those who have known her only as an actress in comedy parts this performance will be a revelation of her sincerity and adaptability and, what is more, give almost sure conviction that she is destined to be the Bernhardt of the American stage. That the performance of “The Prayer" is a permissible thing goes to show a new possibility for the art of the drama- tist. Religious subjects and sacred history have always been forbidden ground, but as modern materialism lets down the bars this vast field for dramatic art is bound to be thrown open. The stage may yet become the teacher of religion, as it has been of morals and manners, and in this work vie with the pulpit in results attained. Other history has been so thoroughly worked that the dramatists have long looked with envious eyes on this material which promises in the near future to become theirs. Of" A Priceless Paragon,” which, so far as the time con- sumed in performance is concerned, is the greater part of Mr. Daly's present bill, it need only be said that it is a humorous play adapted from Sardou’s “Belle Maman,” and that it is done with the excellence which always marks the acting at Mr. Daly's theatre. Metcalfe. Father: YOUR HEAD. Son: THEY ARE ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY, ONLY IN FASHIONABLE SOCIETY, I DON'T BELIEVE YOU'VE AN OUNCE OF BRAINS IN FATHAH, I GO OW that we are not to have the Fair and the tender sensibilities of patriotic Gothamites will not be lacer- ated by a glimpse of the truth, we will venture to take a step in that direction. The city of New York is, as every outsider knows, singu- larly incapable of carrying out such a project successfully. Its political rottenness and freedom from all artistic sense would render the result a mortification to every educated American, An enormous percentage of the funds appropriated would be stolen long before they came in sight of the grounds. The remainder would be applied to producing the cheapest, largest, most showy and hastily-erected structures that could be devised. Some of this balance would go toward destroying a portion of Central Park, recent decisions to the contrary notwithstanding. Public spirit is an absolutely indispensable factor in such an enterprise. New York has less than. any city in the world. A World's Fair in this city would bear the same relation to the Paris Exposition as that of a Bowery museum to the galleries of the Louvre. Of course, these remarks are in no way applicable to Chicago. comicbooks.com