Faksimile

Text

6
S
(Greuds
TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 13. 1910.

News
of the
The Fairy Tale“ ls
Not a Faiy Tale.
BY PERCY HAMMOND.
GAIN we have neth us the good woman
who has sinned and Is sorry confronted
by the discouraging futility of repent¬
4 ance. In Mr. Schnitzler’s plag and Nrs.
Newton’s adaptation thereof Miss Nazi¬
I mova impersongtes a temperamental Viennese
netress who has Inaceurately analyzed her early
amours, and, confessing this inncenracy, finds
u. understanding from the man she really loves.
230
It is the old story told in another way; and it
may be sald that the recital, though occaslon¬
ally discursive, is Interesting and fundamentally
25
pleuslble. The andience at the Garrick last
evening seeined genuinelz impressed by it, for
Stheir demeanor made up in thoughtful serlous¬
ness what it lacked in enthusiasm.
As usual Miss Nazimova Is cerie and exotle in
her effective war, though much less so than in
some of her previous appearances here; and by
inexensable factal hysteria and other acquired
leccentrieities mars what otnerwise might be a
2200
masterpiece of emotional acting. There is an
example in the first act. The scene 18 a small
segment of Viennese bohemla where ure gath¬
ered painters, writers, songetresses, and Impre¬
sarlos in much more than their eustomary stage
verity. In one corner of the room it Is whis¬
pered that Fannz Theren. Miss Nazimova’s char¬
acter, has achleved a past and is regretful there¬
for. Whereupon arises Theodore Denner in the
person of Mr. Brandon Tynan and givos utter¬
ance to the belief it is wrong for man to arro¬
gate to himself the beautiful privilege of sin and
thaf the tradition of the fallen woman Ie a fairy
tale. It is nature for woman to love, he be¬
lieves, and a hideous violation of the laws of
nature to punish that wonderful inelination.
There is talk, and pretty good talk, too, abent
false standards and paradoxes and other heret¬
ical philosophy common to bohemin.
Meantime Miss Nazimova, who is acting the
lady who loves him and who is of that kind,
Viss Chra Lipman
drapes herself abont an effective portion of ##e in The Aeriagecr a ötan“
archltecture of the room and gives vent to gro¬
tesque and inexplicable facial convulsions, ###
outcome of which in real life would be sheer Russell, and Miss Eisie Esmond, though she gig¬
consternation onthe part of those who observed gled indisereetly, managed to impart the röle of
her. One would lmagine that she would reserve a foolish ingenne. Dur old friend the tense and
these confessions for a more intlmate occasion, eloquent goung writer was present in tiie per¬
But though theaudience has been informed o“
son of Mr. L. Royee Dunrobin, who appeared
#her frresolute idea of the sexual conventions,
beatifically as a cross between a ewe lamb and
acherub.
she proceeds to disclose her peccancies 10 every
one on the stage. That is, she would disclose
them if they were not afflicted with stage mana¬
gerial psendoblepsis, whieh forbids them seeing
anything save that useful to the play.
In other episodes, however, Miss Nazimova re¬
turns gracionsiy to the faseinatingly sincere
manner of her eariler days with the Russlan
I players. After her lover has diselosed his man's
way of looking at things, his inabilitg to applze
his liberal standard tothe woman he loves, and
!“ 18 dark on the stage, and the situation is roa¬
sonably real, she achieves some real acting,
acting of the sort wllich one may look upon and
analyze as kuman. In the la“. act of the play,
where righteous and earnest indignation i8 :
key and she strips this lover of his shoddz
liberalism and reveals him ás a jealous, narrow,
selfish. and perfeetig natural poseur, she 18
glgantie in her fidellty to characteristie nature,
andthe curtain descends on her in her truest
aspeot
be seen fram the foregoing acconnt
that“ The Fairy Tale“ is no melody from
Mother Goose. It is a frank discussion of mnt¬
#ters material. Lovers and their import are
talked about freeig, and dhe goung person wilo
is being reared in ignorance of such matters
should not be allowed. to attend. As a play it
was rather well done, rave in the last act, shen
the discussion Is wordy and abeut things incon¬
sequential. Mr. Tynan, as is bis hahlt, gave his
ivld impersonation of Hamlet. poctle, psycho¬
logie. and imponderable. Mr. Frederick Tiden
presented a breezy and whollr human iden of n
painter, raving neither sartorlallg nor verbally,
and, exgepting Miss Nazimova’s saner moments,
was qufte tie artistie feature of the proceeding.
Not once did he verge from the straight and
narrow pathrof his dütv. There were Superklut¬
ous characterlzatlons of goung men abent town
done by Mr. Reglnald Mason and Mr. Thomas
3. Das Maerchen
bos 7/2
Wunar
Gaca e
1910. Jan. 157 0
200KS.
ested in
rofessor
Nantical
SLhgeiSSUriC
tructive.
rinciples
vigation
xcellent
·THE FAIRY TALE.“
s-their
plag in three acts, translated by Nina
reasons
Lewton from the German of Arthur Schultz¬
ty, etc.
ler. Presented for the firat time here Sept.
zal, and
12. 1910, at the Garrick Theater. The cnst:
In the
Theodore Denfer. BRANDON TINAN
author.
Leo Mildner. L. RACE DUNROBIN
zion 100
Robert Well FRED L. TIDEN
volded.
Dr. Frederick Witte. REGINALD MASON
In the
August Witte. ORLANDO DALY
ucation
Berger THOMAS RUSSRLL
Albert Wande:. EDWARD R. MAWSON
zer, but
Moritskt WILLIAM HASSEN
t to be
0
Mra. Theron MRS. JACOUES MARTIN
concep¬
Clarn Theren GERTRUDE HERKELEY
ad much
Fapny Theren ALLA NAZIMOVA
onomical
Agatha Miller TERESA M. CONOVER
tion will
Ninnette. MARIE ALLEN
atise on
Emmy Werner ELSIE ESMOND
es Lane
WINDow, in the
Vork.)
scenle background
which frames the sec¬
: soclety
written
ond act of The Fairy
ttention 1
Tale“ gives upon a
ors are
street of trees and
with an
sunlight and com¬
pretty
fortable, placi
parent¬
homes. Now and
en, one
S
agaln one of the two
Italian
princlpal characters
matter,
8 tne play fings it
really
igned,
open and sobs his—or her—tortured soul
ilated,
Into the fresh alr. It seemns to help. But
orinel¬
ere surcease really comes somebody always
good
shuts the window and woe holds its turgld
inger¬
course unchecked.
ndary
If a little of that woe could have been
checked at the winuow (a pleasantry wholly
lay.“
gham Irreverent and out of place, to be gure) one
observer at least would have been a great
deal more impressed by Mme. Nazimova’s
mond
production of the Arthur Schnitaler drama
ger,“
atthe Garrick Theater last ,evening. The
dear
go.ls were propitious. Schnitzler, a Crophet
com¬
honored in his own country with Haupt¬
mann and Sudermann, was receiving his
#the
#e“ a
first serlous hearing In America, Mme.
Nazimova, having long since conquered the
legal
reas¬
English language and been taken to our
UThe
hearts as an actress of wonderful gifts, was
returning to us after an absence of two
idow
exis¬
seasons. The audience was populous and
sther
expectant. But——
To say, without an intlmate knowledge of
lped.
2ce8,
che works of the Austrian dramatist and in
hinn
a basty midnight review that this American
the
production of Das Marchen“ dees not pre¬
sind
sent the play falrly would doubtless be pre¬
sumptuous. But this is the impression.
tay¬
Schnitzler, as he reveals himself in The
sen¬
Falry Tale.“ Is clearly a writer of the Ibsen
#rles
school, with strong leanings toward the
emotional theatricalism so frequently used
py Sudermann and dher hlghly respecte
er##lights of the German stage. His plot 18
the l simple, compact, and worked out with an
edy
effect that one suspects would be irresist¬
ible if it were developed In an atmosphere of
normal sanlty instead of the gasps and
ry-
writhings in which Mme. Nazimova and
ng
her leading man, Brandon Tynan, have
elected to indulge.
Two central characters there are, to
whom the action of the play is almost
ne
wholly confined. Fanny Theren, an actress
In a small way at a Vienna theater, has
had an affair with one Dr. Frederick Witte,
a gay young blood by wnom she has been
1
abandoned. At her home, where her elder
Or
sister knows of her past and her fussy.
#