Liebele
5. 1 box 10/8
CATHE
WAMAN THEATRE.
d
" Liebeleij' at St. George's Hall.
Next to Der Biberpelz,' Arthur Schnitzler’s
three-act drama Liebelei“’ is indubitably the
most interesting piece of work the German actors
have yet presented. It is a characteristically and
intimately Viennese play, depicting a phase of
life peculiar to the Austrian capital. The title
Liebelei may be (very inadequately) translated
Dalliance, and the morlg ofthe leading person¬
ages are certainly not above reproach; yet their
irregular relations have not the grossness and vul¬
garity of what is commonly called“ fast'' life, but
are founded upon a certain measure, at any rate,
of real affection and kindness. In a word, the
grisette of midl-century Paris seems to survive
(though not without a difference) in the Kaiserstadt,
and Liebelei“ is a study of the Teutonic
grisette.
We are introduced in the first act to a gay little
supper at the rooms of Fritz Lobheimer. The
party consists of Fritz and his friend Theodor with
their sweethearts Christine Weiring and Mizzi
Schlager. It is evident from the first that the
characters of the two girls are very dfferent. Chris¬
tine is sentimental, passionate, essentially pure¬
minded, and deeply devoted to Fritz, her first and
only love. Mizzi is a good-hearted, frivolous little
creature, sincerely attached to Theodor, but
neither expecting nor very scriously desiring that
their relation should endure for wer. Sho shocks
her friend bv talking lightly ofthe men,?'
whereas for Christine there is only one man in
the world. We soon learn that Fritz is oppressed
by a load of anzietv. He has formed (before he
knew Curistine) a liaison with a married woman, ane
he is sure that her husband has now discovered it.
In the middle of the supper party there comes a
peremptory knock at the door. The two girls
are hurried into another room, and the visitor
is admitted. It is the injured husband, who has
come to challenge Fritz. The duel is arranged
for the morrow, the girls are recalled, and the
supper party proceeds with such gaiety as the
voung men can müster un. The two remaining
acts take place in Christine’s home. In the
second act she confesses her love to her father,
an old musician, and has a scene of parting with
Fritz who visits her for the first time in her
home. and tells her that he is leaving Vienna for
a few days. Something in his manner fills her
with a vague fear, and the scene is all the more
poignant as we know that Fritz is üirmly convinced
that he is going to his death. His presentiment
is fulfilled, and in the last act Theodor comes to
break the news to Christine. She is not only
heartbroken, but tortured by the discovery that
she was a mere ineident in the life of her lover,
who fought and died for another woman. In the
end she rushes away from her home maddened
by grief, and her old father falls on his kuees
sobbing:“ I shall never see her again.' This
littie every-day tragedy is full of life, truth, cha¬
racter and atmosphere. And it is very well
played by the company at St. George’s Hall.
Fräulein Nilasson gives a really powerful and
pathetio rendering of Christine, Herr Hans Andre¬
zen makes an excellent Fritz, and Herr Max
Behrend is moderately good as the old musician—
the part played in Vienna by the great actor
Sonnenthal. The performance concluded on Fri¬
day evening with an agrecable light comedy,
* Die Schulreiterin“ (The Circus-Rider), by Emil
Pohl.
THE GERMAN PLAVS,
Mautaad.
First performance of Herr Schnitzler’s famous play
Liebelei.“
Liebelei' is a simple titleto a simple and pathetic
storv. There is no real equivalent to the German term
in English, flirtation' may come nearest to it, and
get in the Germanword their lies a deeper meaning.
GERMAN PLAYS.
A meaning which ie masterfully developed in the
plav, so simple, so natural, so intensely Luman,
The Liebler of Herr Schnitzler teaches the
and for this very reason so powerful, se truc. Aye,
same moral lesson, by different dramatie means, as
gberein lies the great strength of the play, that it is
Alfred de Musset’s well-named Oa ne Badine pas arec
absolutely trueto human nature; no chance, no false
T'dmour, and it throws discredit on the philosophy of
pathos, everything runs its course inevitably to the
one of the characters in the piece, Theodor Kaiser,
tragie end. Thus, and only thus, it could be. It is
who, to cure a friend, Fritz Lobheimer, of
the old, old story of love and sorrow as it
his passion for a married woman inculeates
is lived day by day among rich and poor:
the novel maxim that to have some chance of
it is, in fact, lifc on the stage. The hand
happiness in life, a man should“ hate the woman he
of a master has drawn these characters; Fritz and
loves, and love the woman he does not care for.“
Theodor, the two friends so unlike each other, the
Thus he will avoid the perils of what Stendhal, in his
former inclined to take life and love seriously, the
treatise on love, calls 7e coup de Jbudre, while securing
latter trifling with life and love; Christine, the bud¬
for himself the pleasures of a very agrecable pastime.
The dramatist has spared us the spectacle of Herr
ding flower, living her first life of love and sorrow
Lobheimer’s love-making with the married lady.
of which she perishes, and Mizi, the light-hearted
But the inconveniences and dangers of the
milliner, whose life is alrcady stripped of its first
situation are well brought out in a con¬
flower, and old Weiring, Christine's father, we meet
versation between the two men; and, to save
them at almost every step we take, if only we walk
his susceptible friend from possibly tragic conse¬
along with our eves open.
quences, the cynical paradox-monger introduces him to
„
This play was for the first time presented to us be
an interesting young girl, who, he hopes, will inspire
the German company last night. And it was a rare
him with nothing more serious than Stendhal’s No. 2
formof affection, labelled amour-cuprice, or, at most,
enjoyment to see this perfect play perfectly rendcred.
F
the No. 3 form, rising to the dignity of amour-gout.
That Fraulein Nilasson is an actress of remarkable,
without reaching the higher development named
nay, great, gifts, I had already beon coslvinced of by
amour-sympathte, still less the exalted and
her impersonation of Magda and Elisabeth (“ Gluck
overwhelming one of amour-passton. Christine,
im Winkel*). But 1 had not as vet trusted hei
daughter of an unsuccessful musician, is a poor but
the power and depth of feeling she displaye
pretty girl, who may be loved without danger or incon¬
part of Christine. She found a worthy p
venience of anv kind, and the professor of the amatory
Herr Andresen, who gave an exzellent and
art, the specialist in connection with the love malady,
like rendering of the part of Fritz. Frau
proposes, by means ofsuch charms as she possesses, to
man, as Mizi Schlager, was charmingly vivaci
cure Fritz, homcopathically, of His fatal infatuation.
Unhappily. however, the case has not been taken in
lively, and Herr Schindler, too, was very praise¬
hand quite soon enough. Christine and an attractive
worthy in the part of Theodor, his best moments
voung friend of hers have come to visit Fritz, and are
being in the first act.
* „
being entertained by him ab supper, when an
Liebelei was followed by a charming and m
unexpected and unwelcume stranger arrives in
amusing one-act comedy, Die Schulreiterin,“
the person of the injured husband. The feast
Emil Pohl, in which Fraculein Nilasson, H
termmnates likethe last feast of Don Juan—interrupted
litzsch, Andresen, and Schindler to
bythe sudden appearance of the statue of the Com¬
Worlitzsch had again a chance of di
mander; and before the curtain falis Fritz has promised
to remain at home the next morning in order to receive
histrionic talents in the part of E
the husband’s seconds.
ingshausen, in which he is inimit
The second act is of idyllic character and very
Nilasson quite surprised us bythe
charming. Fritz has not merely formed a caprice for
way in which she acted the Bai
the young girl who was to have played the part of a
considering the great strain her
lightning conductor in presencc of the menacing
necessarily have put on her. Her
thunderbolt. He has taken a fancy to her, and
delightful sketch of the amorous butle
she is gradually inspiring him with sympathy.
Schindler was all that could be wished in the part
She, on her side, has fallen sincerely in love with Fritz;
ihe Baron.
hoping, though not too confidently, that he in return
may take some little interest in her. But days pass,
and she sees nothing of him. Christine is now (Act III.)
disconsolate and in dread of a coming misfortune.
ce
Suddenlyshe hears that Fritz has been killed in aduel.
He has died without leaving! rawerdoffarewell. He
and his love-passages
has died for another woma
sion. She cannot even
with her had been mere die
these two days. She is
see him; he has been burie
lot go to his grave, since
Weste
told, moreover, that she mi
1#I will ge
ung for him.
his relations may be there
ri, but not to pray; and
to his grave,“ cries the pe
urries out in a paroxysm
herold father exclaims,a
#urn. The whole ofthis
of grief, that she will ne
onthe part of the
last act is a piece of in
plays it like an inspired
author, and Fränlein!
ets are interesting, and
actress. The two pre
to the final one. But
well contrived as prei
anc than the two others,
the third act is onal
even as in real life the
though naturally led
e purely trivial.
tragic may be preced¬
senue (Zirl? ie a ono-ont
Victör Herber nusic is pleasing, but not inspiring.
The Lobby Lounger.
ROUND ABoUT THE THEATRES
Wx may or e may not be quite ready for many of the modern school
of German d natists in this country, and a play like Schnitzler’s The
Reckoning,“ich has been admirably translated by Grace Isabel“
Colbren, and produced at the Berkeley Lyceum, is not food for babes;
but no one can deny its tremendous power, and few will leave the little
Forty-fourth street playhouse without doing a great deal of thinking
for several hours. This is the play which gave Sorma her first real start
in Germany. The star part here is played by Katherine Grey, who has
done many excellent things, but nothing to compare with this. Her
expression of light-hearted youthfulness in the first act, and her tender,
girlish love for Fritz in the second, were beautifully shown; but in the final
great scene, where she learns of her lover’s death, she reached the pinnacle
of her art. Save for Nazimova, no actress on the stage this season has
given a finer performance. Phyllis Rankin proved how much timeshe has
wasted in the past in Casino productions, for her portraval of Milet was
excellent in every way. Robert Conness made a splendid Theodore, and
Albert Bruning, in a part which brought him into view for only a few
moments, created nothing short of a sensation. The balance of the cast
was adequate. The lighting was particularly poor, and it will be a pity
if this heart-breaking drama is not given later on in a larger theatre.
The Stroller.
Geffe