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Der druene Kakadu
9. 3 0 een Aereneneee
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HENS OP TRB THBATRBS
THE LFCEUM BECOMES A TEM¬
PORARY CHAMRFR OF
HORRORS.
Between Schnitzier's The Green¬
Cockatoo“ and Hauptmann's
Hannele,“ Mrs. Fiske Presenter.
Pouble Bill of Unmitlgated Gloom—
As a 12-Tear-old Child the Great
Actress Lacks Convletion, and Thongh
Hannele's“ Production Is Most
Elaborate, Its Effects Are Spolled
by Too High Lighting—A Perform.
ance of the Hauptmann Play Which
Misses Every Appealing Note.
If you are looking for a fit ofthe horrors
this week, go tothe Lyceum Theatre, and
Mrs. Fiske and her company in The
Green Cockatoo“ and Hauptmann's“Han¬
nele“ will supply you with two fits forthe
one price of admission. For Mrs. Fiske
individually it was by no manner of means
anight of triumph; forthe nystem of seif¬
effacement which she has adopted lately
kept her out of The Green Cockatoo“
altogether, and in the title röle of
Hannele the spectacle of seeing her
playing a 12-year-old child was al¬
most too severe a strain upon the
imagination. In the dim half light of
the beggar’s den, lying on the cot bed.
carefully draped with her rags and the
blanket, Mrs. Fiske’s voice carriedthe rôle
for a single scene, but even here vocally
her performance was by no mears
childish. Later, ihen in the course of her
dreams she assumes the white celestial
robes of Hannele and prepares to enter
her golden coffin, and later, when with the
calciums blazing full upon her she pre¬
pares to mount the golden Stairs, she
reminded you only of a partioularly
buxom and precocious little Eva, who
was not by any means so little at that.
After all.it is only a stöp from
the sublime to the Uncle Tom’s Cabin
point of view and last night tHio light
effects were in nearly every instance
pointed so high.that all illusion was lest.
Never from an electrical and mechaßieal
point of view has Hannele' beon so
elaborately mounted, but never before
have we secn a performance of it which
carried so little conviction. Forthis, it is
true, the overlighting was partly toblame,
but at the same time Mrs. Fiske's oyn
portrayal was most seriously at fäült.
Throughout there was an ovorelaboration
which seriously hurt the play.
As a matter of fact, Hannele7 is a
play to be read rather than acted. It
deals with such sacred and celestial things
that no stage management in the world
can present it fittingly; besides, the pres¬
ence of the figure of the Saviour on the
stage in the full glare of the lime¬
light is just as objectionable to many
thousands of theatregoers as it was
when first shown here sixteen years ago.
It’s all very well to say that this figureiis
merely Hannele’s friend, Dr. Gottwald,
glorified by the child’s fervid imagination,
but the intent and the result is to present
an actual figure of the Christ. Goffwald
is, of course, the most important röle
in Hannele, and here again there was a
disappointment in Mr. Holbrook Blinn’s
interpretation of it. That wonderful
speech in the second scene he rendered
in a monotonous way, which had no real
trace of tenderness. Miss Alice John
played the nun beautifully, and Wilfred
Buckland’s makeup as the Tall Därk
Angel was singularly impressive. But
for all that there was not one moment
when the play really caught and beld
you. Great as it may be as a poetio