Life — November 21, 1912 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

"LIFE bitious stage artists of the male persuasion that 77.7 “Camille” does to ladies aspiring in the art. No actor has achieved the laurel until he has successfully impersonated at least one of the great trio, Brutus, Cassius and Antony. Mr. Faversham chose the last, usually accounted the easiest in which to gain the favor of an audience. Of his individual SL performance it may be said that he sounds a new note in his conception of the character. Shakespeare made Antony a classical politician; Mr. Faver- sham makes him almost a modern politician in his assump- tion of familiar kinship with humanity. No cart-tail speaker n the recent campaign brought himself into closer personal touch with his hearers than does this Antony in his intimate appeal to the Roman mob, This humanizing of the character may detract somewhat from its dignity, but the same method applied to all the tragic characters of Shakespeare might make them more appealing to audiences which have been brought up on realism and are repelled from Shakespeare by clocutionary conventionalism. Mr. Tyrone Power filled the eye and ear completely with the conventional Brutus, and, it must be confessed, wearied his hearers with elocutionary pauses and statuesque poses. Mr Keenan, too, mouthed his Cassius, and the long tent scen between these two classical worthies tended to weary rather than to edify, Mr. Mellish’s Caesar was well done in the old- school manner, and the other numerous small rdles were ac- ceptably filled. Mr. Faversham has been generous in the matters of costume and setting. In its entirety .h’s is more than a fair presentation of the famous tragedy. OMING a little further down the scale of time we find a surprisingly good presentation of the semi-classic “She Stoops to Conquer” by Annic Russell and her “ old English comedy company.” Miss Russell is hersclf charm- ingly piquant as Kate Hardcastle, and completely eliminates the plaintive toncs which have been so long associated with her voice that there was skepticism of her ability to play a comedy part which is usually made brilliant or hoydenish. Of companion excellence was Mr. George Giddens's Tony Lumpkin. Almost every celebrated comedian has essayed this rdle at some period of his career. None of the many the writer has seen, and it may be doubted that any of their predecessors gave the character a better balance between too much and too little coarseness of method, It is an admirable accomplishment and should be seen by every lover of good acting. The Hardcastle of Mr. Fred Permain was also played with just the proper combination of irascibility and unctuous- ‘J ULIUS CAESAR” bears much the same relation to am- ness instead of with the customary exaggeration. Beatrice Herford looked Mrs. Hardcastle, and when she gets full con- trol of her voice may make this impersonation as clean-cut as the characters she has created in her own monologues. The weak spot in the company was the young men. Marlow and Hastings, as portrayed by Messrs. Frank Reicher and John Westley, lacked the romantic elegance and ease neces- sary to those gallants. There has been a demand for adequate presentation of the older English comedies ever since the Wallack days. Annie Russell’s organization, judging by this effort, comes nearer to supplying it than any other that has made the at- tempt. “She Stoops to Conquer” is here played with ex- quisite and refined comedy spirit, which, it may be sus- pected, is largely inspired by the artiste whose name the company bears. Now it is up to New York’s best theatre- going public to show whether or not it appreciates a good comedy well played. “THE Dove of Peace,” in which Messrs. Walter Damrosch and Wallace Irwin joined their musical and literary abilities to produce a comic opera, turns out to be an claborate enter- tainment which essays s much that it falls short of triumphant achievement in any one particular. If both composer and libret- tist had concentrated and simplified their effort the total result would have been better. Some of the numbers are catchy or inspiring, and of course the whole score shows musical education, but there is no marked originality. Mr, Irwin's fun lacks spontaneity, and shows all the marks of forcing. His book demonstrates that the professional humorist and the humorous librettist are not necessarily the same under the skin. “The Dove of Peace” does not live up to its ambitions. Re Oe Rim ‘OW White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the long announced child's play at Mr. Ames's Little Theatre, ought to fur- nish afternoon diversion for the children of the rich for a long time to come. The assemblage of poor children invited to the first presentation certainly enjoyed it, although the outward manifestations were less pronounced than they are likely to be with children who are not accustomed to repress their expressions of pleasure or the reverse. The piece is a Grimm fairy tale done not so much with the idea of spectacular effect as to bringing out the interest and the fun of the story. The vicissitudes of the good and lovely are graphically shown and culminate as children love to have them in ultimate triumph over the bad and grotesque. It is not easy for the adult to put himself in the place of the child, but it would seem that “Snow White” ought to de- light children and even grown-ups who have not outlived the love of fairy tales. Space is lacking to comment on the cast but, if boyish recollection has not completely left us, there will be a whole lot of hearts under youthful jackets sore for lack of closer communion with Marguerite Clark's lovely Princess Snow White. comicbook $.co