iene Kakadu
9.3. Der
„
box 15/3
est that the contemporary theatre vields.
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 per¬
formed—at the Fifth Avenue Theatre
about sixteen years ago. Then is was
aismissed almost without a hearing and
the New Vork public, which has always
Tremained indifferent to Hauptmann's
genius, except in the case of" The Sunken
Bell,“ had no further opportunities to
know the play, althoughit has occasionally
been performed in other cities.
Itis 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
üthe 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 insthe Silesian Moun¬
tains, those who had befriended her be¬
come confused in her mind with the
figures of her religion. There are angels
Tas well as the spirit öf her dead möther,
while the schoolmaster, who has been
kindest of them all to her, assumes in her
mind the likeness of the one she had been
taught to believe would receive her in His
kingdom when all the earthlv sufferings
caused by her brutal stepfather were at
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 its
naive pathos colors every episode in the
simple action. That such beauties as
Hannele“ offers are not for all markets
must be obvious from the slightest knowl¬
edge of its subject. It in
undeniable
that many persons would find littie to
interest them even in Mre. Fisk
rodue¬
tion of the play which leftfewo
smerits
Tet its origina
inreve
nd fresh
5C
despite its sombre subject
dadmirers.
knew that to play success¬
istri¬
of 14 would be for
orce without addi
mar
ysterl¬
r reputation. The
of the
ghtened state
strikingly, althoughher
faith in
e re-
6
oel
Y of
French
very
Phili
that co
characteris
ne
ess of its peri
a cabaret to
aristocrats who gather therei
believe that they are real criminal
not hired pretenders learns that his
wife is unfaithful and kills tlie mauché
had just claimed—as a part of his even¬
ing’s duties to his employer-sto have
murdered in his wife’s dressing room
at the Porte St. Martin Theatre.
The climax of this episode was indeed
thrilling. There might advantageously
have been more distinctness in the per¬
formance and there was certainly a plen¬
tiful lack of elegance in all the actors
excepting Edward Mackay and Holbrook
Blinn, who played the jealous actor with.
real power and distinction. Olive John
was a lovely Merreilleuse with alf the#
artificiality and pose of the period, while
the acting was generally competent and
the accessories picturesque.
But The Green Cockatoo' was ho
such credit to the theatrie skill of Mrs.
Fiske, who did not take part in it, as
Hauptmann’s play which followed.