ruene Kakadu
er
9. 3 eeechenecee
box 15/3
her fuce is the sudden revelation of woman.
So that when Higgins comes in furious search
of his wife big Jim knocks him about a bit
loi a change. Then whien the husband is out
of the way he proposes that they shall live to¬
gether, and is almost eloquent in his new¬
found passion. She consents, but the pride
strong
of being a Prespectable voman“
upon her, and she steals back to Bill Higgins.
That individual, although he wants her back
badly, is inflamed now by jealousy, and she
flies from him again and back t0 Jim.
SIGNIFICANT ACTING.
It is here that we have a magnificant piece
of acting. They discuss their miserable posi¬
tion, and we see that Jim is immediately
iealous and distrustful that she went back to
her husband at all. There have been hints
before that Jim is a queer fellow. Now under
the stress of his first emotion we secm to see
his mind snap. He realises the miserable
position of the woman, thrown out again by
her drunken brute of a husband, and now sus¬
pected a little, against his will, by himself,
the man who wanted to protect her. One can
see the craziness working in his face. There
is only one way out with a woman with her
back to the wall, and he supplies it. He pieks
up a knife from the table and stabs her as
she gives him his first caress from woman.
Mr. Norman MeKinnel was splendid as the
bemused Jim, and Miss May Blayney as Liz
Higgins gave a piece of restrained, „perfect
character acting, with every little point made,
such, as is rarely seen on the stage. In the
tinal sceno the madness gradually ereeping
over Jim's face andthe bewilderment and then
terror over hers were very finely rendered.
Mrs. Ada King as a sort of female Caliban,
keeper of the“ doss-house, and Mr. Edmond
Breon as the cowardly and blustering Bill
Higgins, were bothexcellent. The piece itself
was very warmly received. It seemed a pity
that the author could find no way out except
the table knife, but that was how poor Jim
saw the situatien. In a way, it is too much
toask us to believe that thersituation would
have turned Jim’s head, but Mr. Mekinnel
certainly rcalised it on the stage.
The second piece was Arthur Schnitzler’s
brilliant“ grotesque?'“ The Green Cockatoo,
and from low life in London to-dav we were
taken to low life in the Paris of 1789. Thie
one-act play' of Selinitzler’s has already been
deseribed in 7he Standard, at the time of its
performance by the Incorporated Stage Society
nearly a year ago, but it will be as well to
record again its main outlines. The scene
passes in an underground den, half tavern,
half theatre, called“ The Green Cockntoo,“
wiiere amid realistie surroundings tbe
fashionables of the day come to quiz at
a tattered crew of actors who pretend to be
eriminals.
THE TRAGEDT.
The best ofthe barnstorming crew is Henry,
1 genius in bis way, who has just married
Léocadie, an actress of generous amours.
Henry comes in and recites, to the general
horror, how he has just killed the Duc de#
Cadignen because he discorsted him in his
wife's dressing-room at the Porte St. Martin
Theatre. The spell of horror is broken by
the entrance of the Duke, and everybody,
nobleinen, noble dames, and tatterdemalions,
rcalise that it was only Henry's little joke—
bat a brilliant one. But at the same moment
Heurg roalises that what he has heent joking“
about is true in fact, and he stabs the Duke
##st as the rabble burst in from theitaking #f.
the Bastille. And the curtain comes down
on the nobles fighting their way öut of the
cellar, the whole big joke of the crew wlio
asactors have been wont to spit ät the amused
aristocrats suddenly turned to grim reality.
Unfortungtelcouldnot holpramur¬
ing last night’s performance with the previons
oue, and it suffered by that comparisen in all
points. Theremuch sheuting, sothat
the rather inverged action of the piece was
obscured. The stage also is hardly big enough.
for whet has to take place on it. But ihose
who did not see the firstsperformance will no
nan
doubt enjoy this oue very much Mr. N
Mekinnel played Henrebut
realise the quaint mixturesof
braggadocio in the part as Mr. Léon Quer
maine did. Mies Sarah Brocke, Mr. Maleolm
Cherry. and others werc very good as tie
aristocrats.
er
9. 3 eeechenecee
box 15/3
her fuce is the sudden revelation of woman.
So that when Higgins comes in furious search
of his wife big Jim knocks him about a bit
loi a change. Then whien the husband is out
of the way he proposes that they shall live to¬
gether, and is almost eloquent in his new¬
found passion. She consents, but the pride
strong
of being a Prespectable voman“
upon her, and she steals back to Bill Higgins.
That individual, although he wants her back
badly, is inflamed now by jealousy, and she
flies from him again and back t0 Jim.
SIGNIFICANT ACTING.
It is here that we have a magnificant piece
of acting. They discuss their miserable posi¬
tion, and we see that Jim is immediately
iealous and distrustful that she went back to
her husband at all. There have been hints
before that Jim is a queer fellow. Now under
the stress of his first emotion we secm to see
his mind snap. He realises the miserable
position of the woman, thrown out again by
her drunken brute of a husband, and now sus¬
pected a little, against his will, by himself,
the man who wanted to protect her. One can
see the craziness working in his face. There
is only one way out with a woman with her
back to the wall, and he supplies it. He pieks
up a knife from the table and stabs her as
she gives him his first caress from woman.
Mr. Norman MeKinnel was splendid as the
bemused Jim, and Miss May Blayney as Liz
Higgins gave a piece of restrained, „perfect
character acting, with every little point made,
such, as is rarely seen on the stage. In the
tinal sceno the madness gradually ereeping
over Jim's face andthe bewilderment and then
terror over hers were very finely rendered.
Mrs. Ada King as a sort of female Caliban,
keeper of the“ doss-house, and Mr. Edmond
Breon as the cowardly and blustering Bill
Higgins, were bothexcellent. The piece itself
was very warmly received. It seemed a pity
that the author could find no way out except
the table knife, but that was how poor Jim
saw the situatien. In a way, it is too much
toask us to believe that thersituation would
have turned Jim’s head, but Mr. Mekinnel
certainly rcalised it on the stage.
The second piece was Arthur Schnitzler’s
brilliant“ grotesque?'“ The Green Cockatoo,
and from low life in London to-dav we were
taken to low life in the Paris of 1789. Thie
one-act play' of Selinitzler’s has already been
deseribed in 7he Standard, at the time of its
performance by the Incorporated Stage Society
nearly a year ago, but it will be as well to
record again its main outlines. The scene
passes in an underground den, half tavern,
half theatre, called“ The Green Cockntoo,“
wiiere amid realistie surroundings tbe
fashionables of the day come to quiz at
a tattered crew of actors who pretend to be
eriminals.
THE TRAGEDT.
The best ofthe barnstorming crew is Henry,
1 genius in bis way, who has just married
Léocadie, an actress of generous amours.
Henry comes in and recites, to the general
horror, how he has just killed the Duc de#
Cadignen because he discorsted him in his
wife's dressing-room at the Porte St. Martin
Theatre. The spell of horror is broken by
the entrance of the Duke, and everybody,
nobleinen, noble dames, and tatterdemalions,
rcalise that it was only Henry's little joke—
bat a brilliant one. But at the same moment
Heurg roalises that what he has heent joking“
about is true in fact, and he stabs the Duke
##st as the rabble burst in from theitaking #f.
the Bastille. And the curtain comes down
on the nobles fighting their way öut of the
cellar, the whole big joke of the crew wlio
asactors have been wont to spit ät the amused
aristocrats suddenly turned to grim reality.
Unfortungtelcouldnot holpramur¬
ing last night’s performance with the previons
oue, and it suffered by that comparisen in all
points. Theremuch sheuting, sothat
the rather inverged action of the piece was
obscured. The stage also is hardly big enough.
for whet has to take place on it. But ihose
who did not see the firstsperformance will no
nan
doubt enjoy this oue very much Mr. N
Mekinnel played Henrebut
realise the quaint mixturesof
braggadocio in the part as Mr. Léon Quer
maine did. Mies Sarah Brocke, Mr. Maleolm
Cherry. and others werc very good as tie
aristocrats.