Faksimile

Text

EB BELLE
S
Mrs. Fiske Misses
the Child Spirit
of" Hannele'

EYCHARLES DARNTON.
P HILE any one who has the best interests of the stage at heart munt
sympathize with the earnest, and usually brilliant, efforts of Mrs. Fiske,
tlie regrettable fact remains that Hauptmann’s“Hannele“ could not make
ier a child again just for last night.
A franklg disappeinted audience was left to grope its way through ine
##o-called "dream poem'' at the Lyceum Theatre not only because the stage m
tgement failed to lend a helping hand at times but because Mrs. Fiske did net
bring out the shining spirit of the child and the Manhattan company gen
seemed to be completely in the
The performance was falrly ##
in atmosphiere“ that began with##
ludé by tlie orchestra which wa
ried to such lengths that the #
lost its patience and its manne
the music had run its course.
W
The pity that the play awa
you read it was not felt wde
was carried into the almshous
placed on her deathbed last n
her first half-frightened utterane
Fiske, türning on her pillow, might
have been a child for all one could s#e
or hear, but her criés of terror at the
apparition of thie bbrutal stepfather were
the cries of à woman. Still the physical
obstacle was not tle real stumbling
block in Mrs. Fiske’s way. It was the
spiritual side of the rolé that she was
unable to realize. This was all the
möre sunprising for the reason that shé
probably chose thé pläy dut of sym¬
pathy with dts protest ágainst cruelty
to children qulte sas much as fär its
poetry.
Whether dreams and visions can be
shonen on the stage without saerifteing
much of the poetry and even möré of
ssadas
tlie elusive quality is à question thät
rémained in the balänce läst niglit:
Mrs. Fiske as Hannele.
This sordid, pltiful täle öf the poor,
starved beggar child thät tries to com¬
mit suieide to escape the brutality öf
drunken stepfather Is so tinged with the superhuman that it is difficult 10
make it objective. The play shows Hauptmann botwas a roalist and à symböllst,
and the delirious visions of the dying child, the donfused medley in which her
dreams of her dead mother and the hcaven to ghich shé is lönging to go ars
mingled with terror when she imagines shé sees or hears her stepfäther, make
the acting, as well as the stage mahagement, an unusually difficült task.
It was impossible, öf course, for Mrs. Fiske to look or speäk llke a child
of fourteen. Miss Mabel Tallaferro is
che one woman on our stage who is
physically suited to the role. The noté
of quivering fear was missing in Mrs.
Fiske's first cry,“I am afraid!“ and,
while the later feverish exclamations
weré caughit with more truthfulness,
she never really touched the heart. One
merely felt cold when Hannele was
placed in her erystal coffin äfter the
coming of the Angel of Death, The
angels of light made the #shining stair¬
way to heaven a beautlful pieturé and
ülled us with a spirit of forgiveness for
che sins of some of thé actors.
The balmshouse crew was not buly
###öcial, but almost unintelligible.; As
720
Sister Martha, however, Miss Allce John
83
zve a béautiful perforance. Hol¬
brook Blinh, as the schoolmaster sho
#aromes merged into The Stranger, was
dirappointing. He was neither as awe¬
##piring nor as gentle and tender as
t#echaranter requires.
in The Green Cockatoo,“ howgver,
Mr. Blinn appeared to much betterbad¬
vantage as the chief actor in a Baris
cabaret who told a yarn about killing
OodSadas
his bridé’s lover with such dramatie
1
effect that the proprietor belleved it
and assured him that hie liad made no
Allce John as Sister Märtha.
mistake in finishing the Duc de Cadig¬
nan. So when the Duke dropped in
Holbröck Blinn as Gottwald.
after the fall of the Bastile the gur¬
prised actor made short work of Him. This “grotesquerie' by Arthur Snitzler
proved a stirring, lively little affair, of no serlous value, but clever and “sketchy.“
Ir brought out the fact that Miss John, who played the unhappy bride, is a very
pretty woman. She wäs capital in her amiable indifference ät the beginning, büt
shefell down“ completely when she threw herself upon the dead body of her
lover. The acting generally was very' good, especially that of Henry Stephenson
as the proprietor of the place, and Edward Mackay as the Duke.
It’s a pity the good work wasn't kept up in“ Hannele.“