Tebelei
5. 1
box 11/2
THE SU
—
SCHNTTZLER'S PLIEBELEI.
AN ABLE VIENNESE TRAGEDT
CALLED“THE RECKONING.“
Best and Most Serlous Work of the
Authör of“Sauper d’Adien“ —Polgnant
Pathos Centreing in the Malden Who
Loves Too Well—Albert Bruning Pleases
Arthur Schnitzler, the leader of modern
playwrights in Vienna, whom Fohgotte
Wiehe made known to us ###o years ägo at
in his farcical
the Berkelev Lyceum Th.
atethe same
Souper d’Adieu, was
house last night in bis best mest serious
piece, Liebelei.“ Which in English is called
The Reckoning.“ Both plays are intensely
Viennese, centring in thie amours of easy,
careless youth—"Das Süsse Mad’l.“ But
where the former piece deliciously mocks
their sham heroics, this one lays bare with
fmely poignant art the tragedy that may
lie beneath them.
The thematic centre of the play last night
was an old musician of humble fortune.
Unable to provide a marriage portion for
his sister, he had guarded her with jealous
care, had seen her grow old in virtuous
spinsterhood by his side, and finally die
having never known the joy of youth and
love. The title of her fate might have
been'No Viennese Waltz Musio for Her.“
Saddened in his sensuously poetic old heart,
he resolved to let his daughter Christine
taste the wine of life, though illicitly. It
is her“caresses' and the fate of them that
give the play the title.
Her lover is a young student whlo is just
struggling free from an affair with a mar¬
ried woman in which he sees danger ahead,
and who takes up with Christine'’s new love
before he is well off with the old. Theresult
is a duel with the husband in which the
young man is killed. Christine has a heart
above waltz music. She is sincerely and
passionately in love. Friends and relatives
have a place at the dead man's side, but.
not she. She demands to be taken to his
grave, and is told that there will be another
woman there. She goes out, none the less,
and her griefstricken father knows that
he will find her dead beside the grave.
The main ineidents of the three siender
acts—the amour, the duel and the death-are
familiar enough in the Continental drama.
What gives the play its novelty and its
character is the philosophy of the old father
and its tragie result. Hf, as seems likely,
the purpose of the present representation
is to pave the way to the regular stage it
is probably not destined to succeed. The
fate of the dowerless girl on the Continent
in general, and the frank unmorality of
this story in particular, are not likely to
find any broadly sympathetic hearing in a
puritan country. But the fundamental
theme of it all—the right tothe joyof youth
and love—is universal; and treated as it is
with fine sympathy and essential morality,
it abundantlyrewar an intelligent hearing
The present produrtion is under the
direction of Gustav von Seyffertitz, once
leading comedian and stage manager at
the Irving Place theatre, in colaboration
wich Frederick Sullivan. Except when
cramped by the narrowness of the stage
it is distinctly competent.
The acting is able if undistinguished.
Katherine Grey, as the heroine, reveals
unwonted simplicity and charm in the
earlier phases of her interpretation, and is
sincere throughout, though clearly not up
to the intense and poignant emotionalism
of the last act. As her father, George
Henry Trader gives an able technical per¬
formance, though without mellowness.
Phyllis Rankin is breezy in the part of
the more ordinary type of cocotte, and
Sarah MeVickar does a character sketch
amusingly. The young lover and his friend
are agreeably played by John Dean and
Robert Conness.
By far the best work of the evening was
done by Albert Bruning, as the wronged
husband. He appears for only a moment,
but his magnetism and latent force are
electrie and illumined the scene. Together
with his Rosedale in the ill fated House
of Mirth,“ the performance places him very
high’among our actors.
The translation, by Gräce Isabel Colbron,
is simple, easy and touched with happy
vernacular.
78
2-
TIIIES, THURSDAY, F.
ieu Srätee
Rohrhopert
IOWS
king Powder
um etrengin,
ia Realtktar
POWDER CO., NEW VORK.
uns THE RECKONING‘ GREAT.
Queer Little Berkeley Theatre Again
nst
the Scene of a Stage Master¬
piece of Wonderful Power.
ind
Is there nothing eise in life for a
the
young girl but that she should marry
the first young man with a steady job
who offers himself?“ asks Hans Wehring,
II1-
of Mrs. Binder, in “Liebelel.“Am I
agaln to have before my eyes another!
such as my poor sister, who I guarded so
carefully from temptation—and from hap¬
piness?“
ny
Owning a father with such ideas, it is1
m¬
not surprising to find Christine paying
vistt with her friend Mitzi to the apart¬
ments of Fritz and Teodor, enjoying a
idnight repast, drinking the “bruder¬
schaft“ and dancing a mad waltz. Tet!###
whatever Mitzl seems and probably Is,
an
poor Christine is nothing more than reck¬
16
less. She loves Teodor with a passion so
divine, so spiendidly limned, that more
would be palllated.
Teodor is not so light of heart„
as Mitzi would wish him to be.
The surety that a diabolleal husband was
„
watching from across the street the night!
er-before prompts him to pallid fear at
o
every footstep in the hall. Finally, the
fateful ring comes at the doorbell; trem¬
8
blingly he whisks the giris away, and
F
ry
then appears the physical substance of
the shadow of doom that has been hang¬st
ing over him. At first he tries to de¬
ceive himself and the other man, as to
D
nd
the meaning of the call, but the husband
soon discloses the fact that all of the
r.
8d
llaison is known. Teodor is no more a
11
hero than he is a deep-dyed villain, but
t
he accepts the challenge steadily, when it
t.
d
comes, not without a sense of the ful¬
W
filment of his premonition. Christine, too,
s- Von her return, is infected by it, and
8
dreads.
nt
After the duel, the funereal friendit.
76
makes known to her the truth that Teo¬
dor has fallen at the pistol of an¬
I
other woman’s husband, that the burfal
took place some hours before, very qulet¬
r
B
ly, with but a few friends and relatives
K
SL
present. He spoke of you, too,“ Fritz
1-
pl.
assures her. Then Christine turns to
Al
her father, old Hans, the first vlolln, as
W..
one who comprehends, and not to Fritz,
to
Ino longer the fat, jolly comrade." You
SW.
understand?“ she screams." He spoke of
and
sine, t00—too; a few relatives and friends!“
Alr
Be a little calmer, Christine,“ pleads
bloc
Fritz.So!“ erles the giri In agony.
Con
Altogether calm to-morrow, and in six
run
months another lover? Let me pray at
5. 1
box 11/2
THE SU
—
SCHNTTZLER'S PLIEBELEI.
AN ABLE VIENNESE TRAGEDT
CALLED“THE RECKONING.“
Best and Most Serlous Work of the
Authör of“Sauper d’Adien“ —Polgnant
Pathos Centreing in the Malden Who
Loves Too Well—Albert Bruning Pleases
Arthur Schnitzler, the leader of modern
playwrights in Vienna, whom Fohgotte
Wiehe made known to us ###o years ägo at
in his farcical
the Berkelev Lyceum Th.
atethe same
Souper d’Adieu, was
house last night in bis best mest serious
piece, Liebelei.“ Which in English is called
The Reckoning.“ Both plays are intensely
Viennese, centring in thie amours of easy,
careless youth—"Das Süsse Mad’l.“ But
where the former piece deliciously mocks
their sham heroics, this one lays bare with
fmely poignant art the tragedy that may
lie beneath them.
The thematic centre of the play last night
was an old musician of humble fortune.
Unable to provide a marriage portion for
his sister, he had guarded her with jealous
care, had seen her grow old in virtuous
spinsterhood by his side, and finally die
having never known the joy of youth and
love. The title of her fate might have
been'No Viennese Waltz Musio for Her.“
Saddened in his sensuously poetic old heart,
he resolved to let his daughter Christine
taste the wine of life, though illicitly. It
is her“caresses' and the fate of them that
give the play the title.
Her lover is a young student whlo is just
struggling free from an affair with a mar¬
ried woman in which he sees danger ahead,
and who takes up with Christine'’s new love
before he is well off with the old. Theresult
is a duel with the husband in which the
young man is killed. Christine has a heart
above waltz music. She is sincerely and
passionately in love. Friends and relatives
have a place at the dead man's side, but.
not she. She demands to be taken to his
grave, and is told that there will be another
woman there. She goes out, none the less,
and her griefstricken father knows that
he will find her dead beside the grave.
The main ineidents of the three siender
acts—the amour, the duel and the death-are
familiar enough in the Continental drama.
What gives the play its novelty and its
character is the philosophy of the old father
and its tragie result. Hf, as seems likely,
the purpose of the present representation
is to pave the way to the regular stage it
is probably not destined to succeed. The
fate of the dowerless girl on the Continent
in general, and the frank unmorality of
this story in particular, are not likely to
find any broadly sympathetic hearing in a
puritan country. But the fundamental
theme of it all—the right tothe joyof youth
and love—is universal; and treated as it is
with fine sympathy and essential morality,
it abundantlyrewar an intelligent hearing
The present produrtion is under the
direction of Gustav von Seyffertitz, once
leading comedian and stage manager at
the Irving Place theatre, in colaboration
wich Frederick Sullivan. Except when
cramped by the narrowness of the stage
it is distinctly competent.
The acting is able if undistinguished.
Katherine Grey, as the heroine, reveals
unwonted simplicity and charm in the
earlier phases of her interpretation, and is
sincere throughout, though clearly not up
to the intense and poignant emotionalism
of the last act. As her father, George
Henry Trader gives an able technical per¬
formance, though without mellowness.
Phyllis Rankin is breezy in the part of
the more ordinary type of cocotte, and
Sarah MeVickar does a character sketch
amusingly. The young lover and his friend
are agreeably played by John Dean and
Robert Conness.
By far the best work of the evening was
done by Albert Bruning, as the wronged
husband. He appears for only a moment,
but his magnetism and latent force are
electrie and illumined the scene. Together
with his Rosedale in the ill fated House
of Mirth,“ the performance places him very
high’among our actors.
The translation, by Gräce Isabel Colbron,
is simple, easy and touched with happy
vernacular.
78
2-
TIIIES, THURSDAY, F.
ieu Srätee
Rohrhopert
IOWS
king Powder
um etrengin,
ia Realtktar
POWDER CO., NEW VORK.
uns THE RECKONING‘ GREAT.
Queer Little Berkeley Theatre Again
nst
the Scene of a Stage Master¬
piece of Wonderful Power.
ind
Is there nothing eise in life for a
the
young girl but that she should marry
the first young man with a steady job
who offers himself?“ asks Hans Wehring,
II1-
of Mrs. Binder, in “Liebelel.“Am I
agaln to have before my eyes another!
such as my poor sister, who I guarded so
carefully from temptation—and from hap¬
piness?“
ny
Owning a father with such ideas, it is1
m¬
not surprising to find Christine paying
vistt with her friend Mitzi to the apart¬
ments of Fritz and Teodor, enjoying a
idnight repast, drinking the “bruder¬
schaft“ and dancing a mad waltz. Tet!###
whatever Mitzl seems and probably Is,
an
poor Christine is nothing more than reck¬
16
less. She loves Teodor with a passion so
divine, so spiendidly limned, that more
would be palllated.
Teodor is not so light of heart„
as Mitzi would wish him to be.
The surety that a diabolleal husband was
„
watching from across the street the night!
er-before prompts him to pallid fear at
o
every footstep in the hall. Finally, the
fateful ring comes at the doorbell; trem¬
8
blingly he whisks the giris away, and
F
ry
then appears the physical substance of
the shadow of doom that has been hang¬st
ing over him. At first he tries to de¬
ceive himself and the other man, as to
D
nd
the meaning of the call, but the husband
soon discloses the fact that all of the
r.
8d
llaison is known. Teodor is no more a
11
hero than he is a deep-dyed villain, but
t
he accepts the challenge steadily, when it
t.
d
comes, not without a sense of the ful¬
W
filment of his premonition. Christine, too,
s- Von her return, is infected by it, and
8
dreads.
nt
After the duel, the funereal friendit.
76
makes known to her the truth that Teo¬
dor has fallen at the pistol of an¬
I
other woman’s husband, that the burfal
took place some hours before, very qulet¬
r
B
ly, with but a few friends and relatives
K
SL
present. He spoke of you, too,“ Fritz
1-
pl.
assures her. Then Christine turns to
Al
her father, old Hans, the first vlolln, as
W..
one who comprehends, and not to Fritz,
to
Ino longer the fat, jolly comrade." You
SW.
understand?“ she screams." He spoke of
and
sine, t00—too; a few relatives and friends!“
Alr
Be a little calmer, Christine,“ pleads
bloc
Fritz.So!“ erles the giri In agony.
Con
Altogether calm to-morrow, and in six
run
months another lover? Let me pray at