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The Theaters —By Percy Hammond
Eva Le Gallienne
Schnitzler’s“ The Call of Life“
at the Actors’ Theater in
Thirty-ninth Street
The Call of Life.“ a play by Arthur
Schnitzler, translated by Miss Dorothy
Donnelly and presented by the Actors“
Theater at the Thirty-ninth Street The¬
ater, with the following cast of ynaractern:
Moser Egon Brecher
W
Marle Evs La Galllenz#
Edward Rainer Douglass R. Dumbrille
Doctor Schindler Thomas Chalmers
Allee John
Mrs. Toni Richter
Catherine Katherine Alexander
Max Derek Glynne
Sebastian Leete Stone
The Colonel Hermann Lieb
Albert Stanley Kalkhurst
Trene Rosalind Fuller
Synopels—Act I, the Mosers’ apartment,
evening: Act II, at the officers’ quartera.
the same night; Act III, Mrs. Richter'a
home in the country, a'month later.
The action of the play ie laid in and
near Vienna in 1850.
R. SCHNITZLER was suffering
IVI grom damp spirits when, twenty
years ago, he wrote“ The Call of Life,“
a depressing threnody revived last
night in Thirty-ninth Street by the
Actors' Theater. He was evidently of
the impression that “who breathes
must suffer; who acts must mourn,“
and that life, as Mr. Cohan also once
2
figured it out, is a funny proposition
Who appegred last night in.“The
after all. The remedies, if any, for
this state of affairs were not pre¬
Call of Life,' as the Comedy
seribed, so far as I could tell; but
there was much in the play’s clouded
rine Alexander) had similarly answered
philosophy that was incomprehensible
life's summons as uttered by Albert,
to any but the most astute drama¬
another of sex'n good-looking heralds.
lovers.
That lady is the last act also died,
after a long display of symptoms remi¬
If the fable of" The Call of Life“ be
niscent of those which marked the sad
reported as follows in simple terms
Ophelia’s last loony hours.
vou may understand and interpret it
for yourself. Marie Moser (Miss Eva
The performance was obviously
Le Gallienne), living near Vienna in
make-believe, a thing of entrances and
1850, the alavs of her selflsh old father,
exits, postures and written speeches
poisoned hin, to death. As he crumpled
learned by heart and pronounced by
upon the flcor she rushed away to the
persons of the theater. The, soldiers'
quarters of Max, a handsome Austrian
uniforms were as stiff and toy-like as
lieutenant. But the young wife of the
those of the Chauve-Souris, and the#
Colonel had likewise hearkened to pas¬
mountain background of the last act
zion’s reveille und was beseeching the
was a thin and wabbly outline, reeking
tall soldier to flee with her from inhi¬
of the Bergman studios. Miss Le Gal¬
bitions. It was the eve of battle, and
lienne, as Marie Moser, the principal
the Blue Cvirassiers, of which theilieu¬
character, seemed more spectral than
tenant wal, a member, had sworn to
usual, being pale and wraith-like in
efface by their valor the regimental
appearance and unearthly in deport¬
odium. Thirty years before the Bluc
ment. A bit cudaverous, but always
Cuirassiers, led by Marie’s father, had
interesting.
retreated ingloriously from a field of
Miss Alexander played her mysterl¬
honor.
ous cousin mysteriously, and did the
best she could with a hard job. I
As Marie, hidden behind a curtain,
witnessed the encounter between her
liked the spectacular soldier boys, Mr.
Derek Glyane and Mr. Stanley Kalk¬
lieutenant and the colonel'’s wife, the
hurst, but ihe performances 1 thought
colonel (Mr. Hermann Lieb) broke
best were those of Mr. Lieb, as the
through a window and shot his erring
sinister (and romantic colonel, and of
spouse through the heart. During the
Mr. Egon Brecher, as old Moser, the
following intermission, it seems, Marie
mean exteu raissier. Miss Dorothy Don
gave herself to the warrior, who com¬
nelly translated the play and made of
mitted suieide immediately thereafter.
ntime, Marie's cousin (Miss Kathe- it at least altranslation.