Life — January 26, 1905 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

any Plays of Many Kinds. by! EING only one performance of Adrea,” the observer finds himself 1 somewhat in the position of the man who could not see the forest on ac- of thetrees, There isso mui in the way of plot, acting and set ting th take them all atone the mind refuses to Ip, er if it does, the mental palate 1s confused and receives no precise and definite is any one dominant elem th in; mpression. If there nt itis snificence complexity and m of the st. this in most of the plays that Mr, Belasco We have come to look for produces. Here he seems to have reached the limit in st, ge construction, in richness of cos- nd tuming fective combination of lights ss of the settings of e one and that and color. The impressiv is lessened by the two facts, that the stag the Belasco Theatre is not a lar; ery has to be constructed with a view the sce to transportation, But, all in all, the setting Adrea” is a mc given to nus and im= posing one. owns Mr, Belasco and Mr gas joint authors, itis ex- Of the play, wh John Luther t tremely difficult to judge as a purely literary work, It tells a powerful and tragic story. the incredibility of some of its incidents bein; excused as imaginary happenings in an imag- inary empire. Presumably the play is written in blank verse, If this is so, whatever met- rical beauties or defects the lines may possess are lost in the present-day methods of de- livery. The language is archa this fact gives sufficient >t the author's mosphere purpose. At times the story gets dangerously near to the grotesque, but the theme is really astr impressive one, and is handled with enough skill to produce situations and clt- maxes of unusual force. Mrs tion of impersonating a heroine who 1s her- arter fiuds herself in the novel situa self good, and whose calamities are not of her own producing, It is a character entirely the product of the author's mind and far removed from the world of reality, It is an inconsist- ent creation through its great range of depic- tion and emotion. It would tax the powers of an actress who combined in herself all the natural attributes of her sex and who had at her com- mand alll the art the woman artists of the stage have ever known, Naturally Mrs. Carter fails at some points, and at others there is no deny- ing the moving force of her accomplishment. It is a portrayal entirely worthy of a more ‘LIFE: analytical study than is possible in Live's short columns, ‘The same may be said of the other characters in the long and, on the whole, excellent cast. Like all of Mr. Relasco’s presentations, “Ad ts tremendous work and nscientious effort, It is over the heads of represe the average New York audience, but regarded merely as spectacle it 1s well worth anybody's seeing. HIE: Shubert Brothers have certainly been lavish in their expenditure on the pro- Juction of © Fantana.” It is comic opera of the usual kind, but represents that form of entertainment carried to the highest degree of elaborateness in production, Its music, ex- tremely light in character, is much better than the average, and the book in lines and lyrics is provocative of genuine laughter. Mr. Jef- ferson De Angelis, who heads the cast, be- longs to the usual type of hard-working comic- opera comedian, and Adele Ritchie is the ma donna, both sur- vivors of a school of entertainers, the useful ness of which seems to be passing away. Of a more unusual type is diminutive Katie Barry, whose fun-making abilities are entirely usual comic-opera pi out of proportion to her size, One of her songs, as she sings it, deserves going a long Jistance to hear. The chorus is a generous one in numbers, good looks and display of shapeliness Lovers of fin de sivc/e comic opera will find * Pantana” a very excellent example of that kind of amusement HE performance of Ber- ; nard Shaw's * You Never Ws Can Tell,” at the Garrick, Mie seems to be animated by the 4, artistic impulse which ,in plays ig presented on the New York stage of Ia e years, has been most conspicuous by its ab- sence. Itis likely that the fervid spirit of Mr. Arnold Daly is responsibie for the zest andcon- scientiousness shown in the acting, but this is well-equipped and very well-selected company, It is an in- mirably seconded by a very frequent privilege to be able to say that here is a cast without a weak spotin it. Even Miss Drina de Wolfe, who is commonly sup- posed to lend to a play only personal pulchn: tude and fine dressing, confirms our former impression, recorded in the notice of “A Clean Slate,” that she possesses considerable ability as an actress. Mr, Shaw had his cus- tomary amount of fun in creating the part of Gloria, and Miss de Wolfe portrays it in a way thoroughly to carry out the author's idea. Miss Jeffreys Lewis brings to Mfrs, Clandon a particularly suitable personality and the fruits of her good training, Would that she could convey her meiodious delivery to some of her female contemporaries, Mr. Daly's role is more commonplace than the other Shaw heroes he has portrayed, but he is sufficiently the artist to keep it well within the picture, in- Mr ndlay is a very good W+/liam, indeed, ig al together too long on some of his points, Mr stead of trying to exaggerate its valu John F his only fauit be ng a tendency to han William H. Thompson does all that there 1s with eComas, which utilizes only a small percentage of his powers, Mer, Harry to be don Harwood’s Bohun, the English barrister, shows that he realizes the fine technicality of the character, even if it does irresistibly recall the manly presence of the Hon, Rourke Coch- rane. The smaller parts are also well and faithfully dc “You Never Can Tell” has been so generally read that it requires no summing up asa play, and is one of the laughable and interesting MRS, LESLIE CARTER IN * ADREA,” comicbooks.com