The Press.
London, England, 1853-06-25 00:00:00

zkt prama.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
LORD BYRON'S tragedy, Sardanapalus, was produced
at thi* theatre last week on the occasion of Mr. and
Mrs. Kean's benefit, upon a scale of magnificence
almost unparalleled in the annals of the English stage.
This tragedy, though never intended by the author
for representation in the theatre, is nevertheless a
creation of much originality and power. The cha-
racter of Sardanapalus is full of dignity and tender-
ness ; and the devotion of Illyrrlia, the rugged honesty
of Salamenes, and especially the scene between the
Queen and her husband, afford opportunities to the
actor to portray the highest and most affecting pas-

THE PRESS.

slops of the human heart. The chief defects of this
play, in our opinion, are the want of smoothness in
the versification, and the attempt which the author has
made to preserve what he calls the unities, by commit
ting important events to relation instead of represent-
ing them on the stage. But iu spite of these drawbacks
we think that, if this work could be interpreted by effi-
cient dramatic talent, it would hold a higher place in
public estimation than it does at the present day.
We regret that we cannot speak favourably of the
manner in which the play is acted. Mr. Kean, as
Suntanned!us, failed to render any one of the poet's
numerous suggestions : he seems to have lost all his
energy, and, with the exception of the dream, which
be ranted in an unmeaning manner, his whole per-
formance consisted of a mere repetition of the words,
unrelieved from those faults of emphasis which con-
stitute his chief defect as au actor. The part of
Myrrh(' was very cleverly played by Mrs. Kean; but,
in the absence of any extraordinary dramatic ability,
youth and beauty seem indispeusible to render this
character interesting. Miss Heath was very ineffective
as the Queen. Either by design or accident, she imi-
tates the pe !tiller inflections of Mrs. Ketui's voice to
an extent that is quite painful to hear. Mr. Ryder
was very good as Saiamenes : in person and manner
he is well calculated to play the rough anti honest
soldier, anti he declaimed several of his speeches
with intelligence and effect. Mr. Kean does not,
however, depend either upon the reputation of Lord
Byron or upon the abilities of his company for suc-
cess : he relies upon more certain ground, by making
the production of this play a means of displaying to
the public the costume sand antiquities of Nineveh,
taken from Mr. Layard's works, and executed, as we
understand, under the superintendence of the dis-
coverer himself. Our space will not permit the
elaborate notice which the artistic features of this
most important revival in justice demand ; and we
must, therefore, return again to the subject next
week, contenting ourselves with stating that the cos-
tumes and groupings seem to us most perfectly con-
ceived and executed, and vastly superior in every
respect to the scenery and stage decoration.
The coldness with which this play was received,
and the little impression it made on a well-disposed
audience, were very remarkable, for we never saw
Turning the Tables go better and create more merri-
ment, though all the parts, with the exception of
Mr. Harley's, were but moderately acted.

ADELPHI THEATRE.
MR. Webster has retraced the false step taken in
the production of The Merry Wives of Windsor by
giving to the public, on Monday last, a " Real
Adelphi Drama," as the bills have it; that is to say,
a drama more peculiarly adapted to the power of his
company and the old reputation of his theatre. (3ene-
vieve is an adaptation of a drama produced originally
at the Theatre Historique, Paris, under the title of
Le Chevalier de Maison Rouge, being a dramatic
version of Dumas' romance of the same name. It is full
of the defects common to all pieces in which an attempt
is made to condense into the short space of a dramatic
action all the minute elaboration and detail of the
romance ; but nevertheless it is full of interest, and
abounds in strong dramatic. situation. The trans-
lator, Mr. Bourvicault, has very judiciously subdued
the strong political feeling of the original, and tl►rown
the interest of the drama entirely upon the fortunes
and fate of the heroine ; but in the endeavour to
compress the piece i►►to an endurable length, and yet
to preserve the principal incidents, he has produced
a crowding of " effects" that is almost confusing.
There was considerable evidence of hurry in the pro-
duction of thin drama, but, taking into consideration
the confined space on the Adelphi stage for the
representation of spectacle, a great deal was dune
with very limited means. As regards the acting, Messrs.
Webster and Leigh Murray were so imperfect in the
words of their author as seriously to mar the effects
they might have produced in the gallant, frank, light.
hearted Lorin, and the passionate and enthusiastic
Maurice. Madame Celeste played the heroine with
great feeling, but the part suffered sadly front her
imperfect pronunciation of English, which in many
important positions made her quite unintelligible.
Mr. Wigan made a strong impression upon the
audience by the quiet intense v of his performance
of Dimner ; and his sabre-fight ( with Mr. Webster)
and his death were warmly applauded.

FRENCH PLAYS.

Ox Wednesday, for the benefit of Mlle. Rachel, we had
Louise de Lignerolles. This play is an exception to the
generality of French dramas, for it is moral and maud-
lin, or perhaps we should say, the usual characters ap-
pearing in the cast, our sympathies are invoked rather
for the wife than for the mistress. Unfortunately the
laudable effort is a little overstrained, for injured inno
cence is too easily vindicated, and surreptitous vice is too
uniformly miserable. The notion of eqttipoise is further
removed by the absence of all commendable qualities
in the guilty. The unfaithful husband is a senti-
mental scamp, who scribbles verses, and excuses his
delinquencies by his mistimed combination of enthu

189

Mans with integrity. The wife is a noble-minded
creature, of superior impulses and ideas; and whose
excellence, side by side with the meanness of her
husband, suggests the neees.sity of her paying for her
condescension. The other prominent characters are
the husband of the lady who wrongs and the father
of the lady who suffers; the latter a heavy old gen-
tleman whose entrances and exits are pertinaciously
malapropos. Roth of these personages unite in over-
whelming castigation of the delinquent, whom ulti-
mately the husband shoots in a duel, which the former
welcomes naturally as a mitigation of his punishment.
Independently of this exaggeration in the con-
ception of the subject, the play. we may add, is badly
°mum-titled. At the close of the third act the dra-
matic movement ceases, and it is not revived by the
repetition of the offence for which the husband was
then reprieved, or by the confirmation of his sentence
with the help of the man he has injured. Despite
these drawbacks, however, MUe. Rachel, and she
alone, sustained the interest of the spectators. Her
appeal to her rival in the third scene of the third
set, her returning confidence in the protestations of
her husband, and, in the fourth act, her disdainful re-
jection of his second appeal, were rendered with •
truth to nature which was an evidence of her con-
summate art.
We are not, however, on this account, inclined to
qualify the opinion we before expressed, that in
dramas of this kind Mlle. Rachel is out of her ele-
ment. While we are grateffil to Mr. Mitchell for
giving us an opportunity of beholding genius taxed
by difficulties to which it is not atlated, we demur
to the result. In the level parts of these modern
plays we especially miss the flexibility of manner and
the happy byplay which our brother critics have
discovered; and it is only as the passion rises that
we se the traits of greatness. At such mo-
ments, the gauze of modern conventionalism,
we see the proportions of a brace or a M icnad ; and
such outbursts of the true Rachel, in expressing
strong and simple passions, suggest to the imagina-
tive other powers which she does not appear to possess
proportionately. At least this is our opinion, firmed
after some careful deliberation, and we shall not,
because it may be questioned, refrain from express-
ing it.