uene Kakadu
Der
9. 3
box 15/3
#e Re¬
Krahet #8 THE SU
MRS. FISEE IN CHILD ROLE
HAUPTMANNS +HANNELE“ 18
AX ARTISTIC SUCCESS.
Tender Little Play, Which a Good Company
Makes Much Of Despite Some Incon¬
gruities—“The Green Cockatoo“ Is
Also Presented, Without the Star.
Mrs. Fiske carried her policy of artistic
self-effacement a degree further than she
had in The Pillars of Society' when she
appeared last night at the Lyceum Theatre
as the childish heroine of Gerhart Haupt¬
mann’s poetic play, Hannele.“ The
character she enacted holds the stage
throughout thetwo short scenes, but it
offers little or no opportunity to test Mrs.
Fiske's best powers, or even to indicate
them faintly.
Her chances for triumph—if one may
mention that word in the case of such an
unexacting röle—lie rather in her ability
to leave undone just what her publie
might reasonably be led to expect her
to do. It is readily comprehensible, how¬
ever, that the desire to produce the little
play might appeal irresistibly to her as
a stage manager and a supporter of the
best that the contemporary theatre yields.
Hauptmann’s drama is not unknown
here. It was almost new and had just
achieved fame for its author in Berlin.
when a version by C. H. Meltzer was per¬
formed—and not very adequately pe¬¬¬
formed—at the Fifth Avenue Theatre
about sixteen years ago. Then it was
dismissed almost without a hearing and
the New Tork public, which has always
remained indifferent to Hauptmann's
genius, except in the case of The Sunken!
Bell,“ had no further opportunities to
know the play, although it has occasionally
been performed in other cities.
It is different from Hauptmann’s other
drama in that it is purely poetic, without
message or symbolism of any kind, rely¬
ing for its effect wholly on the study of
the suffering child who, taken from the
pond in which she had sought to drown
herself, sees in her delirium the figures
of those she has loved and those she has
been taught by the sisters to revere and
worship.
Amid the quarrelling mendicants of this
village poorhouse in the Silesian Moun¬
tains, those who had befriended her be¬
come confused in her mind with the
gels
tigures of her religion. Ther
as well as the spiri
while the school
er
kindest of them
en
mind the likenes
taught to believe
g8
kingdom when al
at
athel
caused by her brutal
an end.
While the preparations for her own
#funeral are being made the child’s vision
is enacted
There is gentle and touching poetry
in every incident of the play, and
naive pathos colors every episod
simple action. That such beai
Hannele" offers are not for all
inust be obvions Troin the slightes
edge of its subject. It is und
that many persons would find li
interest them even in Mrs. Fiske’s produc¬
tion ofthe play which left fewofits merits
unrevealed. Yet its original and fresh
poetic charm—despite its sombre subject
—must find admirers.
Mrs. Fiske knew that to play success¬
fully a girl of 14 would be for her a histri¬
onic tour de force without adding ma¬
terially to her reputation. The hysteri¬
cal, nervous, frightened state of thef
child she depieted strikingly, although her
voice had no juvenile note. Her faith in
her religion and her resignation tothe re¬
wards death promised her were also suc¬
cessfully indicated, but it was her artis¬
tic and appreciative production of Haupt¬
mann’s play rather than her performance
vof“ Hannele' that put New York theatre¬
goers again under obligation to her.
Holbrook Blinn, Alice John and the
Pother members of Mrs. Fiske’s company
istance she
Der
9. 3
box 15/3
#e Re¬
Krahet #8 THE SU
MRS. FISEE IN CHILD ROLE
HAUPTMANNS +HANNELE“ 18
AX ARTISTIC SUCCESS.
Tender Little Play, Which a Good Company
Makes Much Of Despite Some Incon¬
gruities—“The Green Cockatoo“ Is
Also Presented, Without the Star.
Mrs. Fiske carried her policy of artistic
self-effacement a degree further than she
had in The Pillars of Society' when she
appeared last night at the Lyceum Theatre
as the childish heroine of Gerhart Haupt¬
mann’s poetic play, Hannele.“ The
character she enacted holds the stage
throughout thetwo short scenes, but it
offers little or no opportunity to test Mrs.
Fiske's best powers, or even to indicate
them faintly.
Her chances for triumph—if one may
mention that word in the case of such an
unexacting röle—lie rather in her ability
to leave undone just what her publie
might reasonably be led to expect her
to do. It is readily comprehensible, how¬
ever, that the desire to produce the little
play might appeal irresistibly to her as
a stage manager and a supporter of the
best that the contemporary theatre yields.
Hauptmann’s drama is not unknown
here. It was almost new and had just
achieved fame for its author in Berlin.
when a version by C. H. Meltzer was per¬
formed—and not very adequately pe¬¬¬
formed—at the Fifth Avenue Theatre
about sixteen years ago. Then it was
dismissed almost without a hearing and
the New Tork public, which has always
remained indifferent to Hauptmann's
genius, except in the case of The Sunken!
Bell,“ had no further opportunities to
know the play, although it has occasionally
been performed in other cities.
It is different from Hauptmann’s other
drama in that it is purely poetic, without
message or symbolism of any kind, rely¬
ing for its effect wholly on the study of
the suffering child who, taken from the
pond in which she had sought to drown
herself, sees in her delirium the figures
of those she has loved and those she has
been taught by the sisters to revere and
worship.
Amid the quarrelling mendicants of this
village poorhouse in the Silesian Moun¬
tains, those who had befriended her be¬
come confused in her mind with the
gels
tigures of her religion. Ther
as well as the spiri
while the school
er
kindest of them
en
mind the likenes
taught to believe
g8
kingdom when al
at
athel
caused by her brutal
an end.
While the preparations for her own
#funeral are being made the child’s vision
is enacted
There is gentle and touching poetry
in every incident of the play, and
naive pathos colors every episod
simple action. That such beai
Hannele" offers are not for all
inust be obvions Troin the slightes
edge of its subject. It is und
that many persons would find li
interest them even in Mrs. Fiske’s produc¬
tion ofthe play which left fewofits merits
unrevealed. Yet its original and fresh
poetic charm—despite its sombre subject
—must find admirers.
Mrs. Fiske knew that to play success¬
fully a girl of 14 would be for her a histri¬
onic tour de force without adding ma¬
terially to her reputation. The hysteri¬
cal, nervous, frightened state of thef
child she depieted strikingly, although her
voice had no juvenile note. Her faith in
her religion and her resignation tothe re¬
wards death promised her were also suc¬
cessfully indicated, but it was her artis¬
tic and appreciative production of Haupt¬
mann’s play rather than her performance
vof“ Hannele' that put New York theatre¬
goers again under obligation to her.
Holbrook Blinn, Alice John and the
Pother members of Mrs. Fiske’s company
istance she