The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-10 00:00:00

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.

If anything could obliterate the notion that to ensure
success managers of metropolitan theatres must of neces-
city produce highly-wrought sensational dramas, the im-
mense audience assembled in Old Drury on Saturday
evening to witness the performance of "Othello" must
surely be sufficient. It proved unmistakeably that no
sooner are managers to be found who will take the pains to
represent with talent and taste the great Shaksperean drama
than an overflowing audience is certain to be the result.
Thus the representation of the tragedy of " 0 thellc," with
Mr Phelps as the Moor, Mr Creswick lago, Mrs Hermann
Vezin Desdemona, and Miss Atkinson Emilia. attracted an
assembly as largo, in fact larger, than the capacious pro-
portions of the largest theatre in London could accommo-
date. That the audience was not an unappreciative one was
clear and palpable from the opening of the tragedy to its
close. The hushed silence as the terrible climax approached,
and the intense attention of all who watched the progress
of the dreadful passion which finally overwhelms the Moor,
was remarkable.

The Othello of iMr Phelps has become one of his finest
and most finished performances. He has entirely cast aside
all those conventional points which many of his predecessors
invariably indulged in, and in place of which he gave us a
pure, original, and highly wrought portrait minutely per-
fect in every particular, and one that every person of taste
and judgment must pronounce to be a masterpiece of
art. The first portion of the part, until the opening of the
third act, was uttered with the utmost dignity and ease, the
half rebuke to his followers as they draw upon the father
of Desdemona, being given in the most telling manner.
There was none of that conventional roar that usually ac •
companies the delivery of the lines by less talented per-
formers; en the contrary, the direction was given in the
most natural manner, and the effect was thereby greatly
heightened. The celebrated address to the Senate was
beautifully declaimed ; indeed, ,a ith the exception of the
great Edmund Kean, we cannot remember ever to have
heard the lines delivered with more dignity and simplicity
combined. His doting love for his new-made wife was ex-
quisitely marked throughout, and his brimful happiness
when he meets her at Cyprus, and the wars ended, and a
long career of married bliss seems opened to him, was ex-
pressed with a gentle power that seemed to be the overflow-
ing beneficence of a mighty nature perfectly at rest. The
violent emotiou commences in the third act. The first
outburst, viz,—

" I had rather bo a toad,
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others' uses,"

was given with terrific earnestness. Rage, tenderness,
indignation, and ferocity fill up the remainder of the play
until despair and remorse darken the picture to its deepest
tones, and nothing is left but to throw over the agony the
wide black shroud of death. In this arduous delineation
Mr Phelps may have been surpassed in occasional intensity,
he has never been surpassed in purity, f,eling, and the
sustenance of uniform passionate expression. He reached
the highest point of art where he stood, with his head rest-
ing on his bosom gazing on the lifeless Desdemona, the
very figure of despair.

Mr Crcswick's lago was a judicious and good performance,
but to our taste he was a little too minute in his endeavour
not to over-act the part. Ho seemed thoroughly to
understand the character, but his version of it required
a little mere villany infused in the soliloquies and a little
more boisterous display in the lighter scenes to show that
his hilarity was forced and counterfeit. That his lago was
a careful and intelligent performance we admit to the full,
but in many parts it fell short of the mark. Mr Neville
was the Cassio, but with the greatest respect to this young
and rising artist we think the character should have been
placed in more abler hands. Mr. Walter Lacy's Roderigo
was especially good, and the same may be said of Mr.
Rayner's Brabantio. Nothing could be better than the
Desdemona of Mrs. Herman Vezin. It was gentle, grace-
ful, and sweetly womanly. Her reading was elevnt and
tasteful, and her appearance the very beau ideal of female
beauty. Miss Atkinson's Emelia is too well known and
appreciated to nead the slightest remark beyond saying
that it was sustained with all its fine effects. The tragedy
was carefully put upon the stage, the dresses and appoint.
ments being all new and historically correct.