9. 3. Der gruene Kakadu box 15/3
lannele“ and ehe Grcen Cockatoo.“
The chief impression carried away from
the first presentation by Mrs. Fiske and
the Manhattan Company of Gerhart Haupt¬
mann’s dream-poem. Hannele.“ at the Ly¬
Seeum Theatre last night, was the rather in¬
sistent doubt whether this play, or any
play that would corporealize,for us the sub¬
stance of visions affd dreams, can hope to
exereise on the stage anything like the effect
it produces in the reading. Try as hard as
one may, and it was evident last night that
the stage management had tried very hard
indeed, the machinery will clank. Dream
effects may be
approximated by
skilful lighting and the use of the gauze
cur aln but elaborate mechanics call for
almöst a greater charlty of the imagination
in the spectators than no mechanics at all.
It certainly is odd that while we would re¬
duce the environment of Shakespeare’s sub¬
stantial histories and tragedies to the bare
Elizabethan setting, we should expect a gos¬
samer thing like Hannele“ to profit by
lavish use of the mechanical resources of
the stage.
The story of Hannele’s ascension 10
Heaven is by this time familiar to most
people. The play was first presented here
in English in 1894, and since then has been
given more than once at the German Thea¬
tre in this city, Hannele Mattern is a girl
Jof fourteen, the step-daughter of a drunken
mason, whose maltreatment drives the child
to seek death by drowning six weeks after
hei mother’s desth. She is rescued and
carried by the schoolmaster into the vil¬
lage poorhouse, where, in her last delirium,
she sees her mother, sees the angel of death,
Isces herself dead and dressed in royal robes,
and laid out in the coffin, and brought to
life again by the schoolmaster, Gottwald, who
is none other than Christ. The röle of Han¬
nele is not in the least a 'star' part. More
than anything else, it calls for the vocal
suggestion of the pathos of fragile and un¬
happy girlhood. Mrs. Fiske'’s volce last
Inight did not create the desired illusion.
It suggested the nervous terror of the mo¬
ment, but not the life of pain and depriva¬
Ition that lay behind, It was over-emphatie
Fand over-metallie. When Hannele, in her
vision, gets out of her bed to be arrayed
in her festal mortuary robes, the sense of
physical weakness and approaching physical
dissolution is conveyed only at odd mo¬
ments.
Arthur Schnitzler's"Green Cockatoo,“
Iwhich preceded Hannele,“ has likewise been
seen on the German stage in this city. It
is a bizarre and highly entertaining evoca¬
tion of Paris on the day of the fall of the
*
Bastille, and has for its plot the motive
that has been made most familiar, perhaps,
X
in Leoncavallo’s“ Pagliacci.“ It is written
with great bravura, and was so acted last
night. Herethe principal part was well
done by Holbrook Blinn, who, in the Haupt¬
mann play, is Gottwald and the Stranger,
7
and very acceptable in both röles. Alice
John was much better as the Sister of Char¬
S
74. 1 5
ity in Hannele“ than as the actress Leo¬
AG RA ME
cadie in the Schnitzler play, in which, too,
RRS. FJ8XE
Z.N
T3 E
Henry Stephenson, Sheldon Lewis, and Wil¬
RANNELE'
GEERAEr
fred Buckland were highly effective. Fuller
DSPENDERRTPP
MAUETNTA N N
Mellish realized the part of Mattern in
DFezust- Avrsoz or
28
*Hannele“ very successfully, and R. Owen
RANNEZE“
Meech, as the goblin-like village tailor,
brought with him what the performance, as
a whole, lacked-armosphere.
Fiennele. Porbidden in Cinl)
16 Veors Ago. Reproduced
Amazement
By CHARLES HENRY MELTZER, presented on ihe hon
some minuteg was theschiefsemotion
lannele“ and ehe Grcen Cockatoo.“
The chief impression carried away from
the first presentation by Mrs. Fiske and
the Manhattan Company of Gerhart Haupt¬
mann’s dream-poem. Hannele.“ at the Ly¬
Seeum Theatre last night, was the rather in¬
sistent doubt whether this play, or any
play that would corporealize,for us the sub¬
stance of visions affd dreams, can hope to
exereise on the stage anything like the effect
it produces in the reading. Try as hard as
one may, and it was evident last night that
the stage management had tried very hard
indeed, the machinery will clank. Dream
effects may be
approximated by
skilful lighting and the use of the gauze
cur aln but elaborate mechanics call for
almöst a greater charlty of the imagination
in the spectators than no mechanics at all.
It certainly is odd that while we would re¬
duce the environment of Shakespeare’s sub¬
stantial histories and tragedies to the bare
Elizabethan setting, we should expect a gos¬
samer thing like Hannele“ to profit by
lavish use of the mechanical resources of
the stage.
The story of Hannele’s ascension 10
Heaven is by this time familiar to most
people. The play was first presented here
in English in 1894, and since then has been
given more than once at the German Thea¬
tre in this city, Hannele Mattern is a girl
Jof fourteen, the step-daughter of a drunken
mason, whose maltreatment drives the child
to seek death by drowning six weeks after
hei mother’s desth. She is rescued and
carried by the schoolmaster into the vil¬
lage poorhouse, where, in her last delirium,
she sees her mother, sees the angel of death,
Isces herself dead and dressed in royal robes,
and laid out in the coffin, and brought to
life again by the schoolmaster, Gottwald, who
is none other than Christ. The röle of Han¬
nele is not in the least a 'star' part. More
than anything else, it calls for the vocal
suggestion of the pathos of fragile and un¬
happy girlhood. Mrs. Fiske'’s volce last
Inight did not create the desired illusion.
It suggested the nervous terror of the mo¬
ment, but not the life of pain and depriva¬
Ition that lay behind, It was over-emphatie
Fand over-metallie. When Hannele, in her
vision, gets out of her bed to be arrayed
in her festal mortuary robes, the sense of
physical weakness and approaching physical
dissolution is conveyed only at odd mo¬
ments.
Arthur Schnitzler's"Green Cockatoo,“
Iwhich preceded Hannele,“ has likewise been
seen on the German stage in this city. It
is a bizarre and highly entertaining evoca¬
tion of Paris on the day of the fall of the
*
Bastille, and has for its plot the motive
that has been made most familiar, perhaps,
X
in Leoncavallo’s“ Pagliacci.“ It is written
with great bravura, and was so acted last
night. Herethe principal part was well
done by Holbrook Blinn, who, in the Haupt¬
mann play, is Gottwald and the Stranger,
7
and very acceptable in both röles. Alice
John was much better as the Sister of Char¬
S
74. 1 5
ity in Hannele“ than as the actress Leo¬
AG RA ME
cadie in the Schnitzler play, in which, too,
RRS. FJ8XE
Z.N
T3 E
Henry Stephenson, Sheldon Lewis, and Wil¬
RANNELE'
GEERAEr
fred Buckland were highly effective. Fuller
DSPENDERRTPP
MAUETNTA N N
Mellish realized the part of Mattern in
DFezust- Avrsoz or
28
*Hannele“ very successfully, and R. Owen
RANNEZE“
Meech, as the goblin-like village tailor,
brought with him what the performance, as
a whole, lacked-armosphere.
Fiennele. Porbidden in Cinl)
16 Veors Ago. Reproduced
Amazement
By CHARLES HENRY MELTZER, presented on ihe hon
some minuteg was theschiefsemotion