The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-07 00:00:00

THEA TR:

tYCEIIM

Fechter as Leone in The Watch Cry.

Another season .was inauguratad last evening at
the Lyceum Theatre, by the same company as hereto-
fore under Mr. Fechter's sole management. And—
in common, we doubt not, with the vast majority of
London playgoers—we heartily trust it may turn
out before its close to have been upon the whole as
brilliantly successful a season as the happiest of its
predecessors. In everything but the intrinsic value
and excellence of the principal drama repre-
sented last evening, it was inaugurated under
circumstances quite as auspicious as the very
happiest among those predecessors. Again the house
was crowded from floor to ceiling. Again the
audience compromised, conspicuously, amongst the
occupants of the boxes and stalls, the leading
cultivators and promoters of art in all its
varied departments. Again, too, the greet-
ing accorded by that considerable and cultivated
assembly to one of the most popular Actors and
Managers, to one of the most rarely gifted and ac-
complished Artists of his time, was worthy in its
cordiality, at once, of Charles Fechter and of them-
selves. Added to this—although to the frequenters
of the Lyceum it it almost superfluous that we
should add it—the principal piece performed was
put upon the stage magnificently. Yet, having
said all this, it is only right to couple with
the enumeration of such mere matters of fact
in regard to last evening's entertainment at the
Lyceum, the mention of another matter of fact, quite
as incontrovertible in its way, as it appears to us, as
any one of those but just now mentioned—that the
play itself, as a theme, is in many respects unsatis-
factory. It is in no way worthy as a medium for
the manifesation of Mr. Fechter's Genius as
an Actor, or of his Munificence as a Manager.
" The Watch Cry" is the title of this three act
drama It being an adaptation from the old and all
but forgotten melodrama, once in vogue, about a quar-
ter of a century since, among theatre-loving Pari-
sians, under the name of Lazare le Padre. In sub-
ject it is partly historical, partly imaginary. The
various characters introduced upon the scene hover,
so to speak, all through the three acts, around
the central figure of Cosmo de Medici. To
attempt anything like an unravellment of the plot,
would be about as adventurous an undertaking as
it would be to give a verbal direction—of a suffi-
ciently lucid kind to guide a novice at the thrid-
ding of labyrinths—through all the complex windings
and involutions of the Maze at Hampton Court.
Sufficient will it be to remark, here, that the hero
of the play is one of the five brothers
Salviati, who so chivalrously devoted their
lives to the salvation of that of their patron and
more than father, Cosmo di Medici, the then Chief
or Merchant-Prince of the Republic of Florence.
Leone Salviati is the character represented by Mr.
Fechter—and, so far as the part in any way admits
of it, it is exquisitely represented by him. When he
enters upon the scene for the first time in
the disguise of an improvisatore he fairly cap-
tivates the eye by the picturesqueness of his
appearance. Miss Elsworthy is the heroine
of the piece—Leone's wife Bianca, daughter of
Cosmo's bitterest enemy, the Duke d'Albizzi. Their
son Silvio, a child in the first act, a stripling in the
second and third, is (under his appearance as a strip-
ling) represented by Mr. Fitzpatrick. In the middle
of the play it is that its title is justified—The Watch
Cry ! given unexpectedly from the palace windows,
by Leone, who thereby saves from assassination the
imperilled life of his and Bianca's son, the youth Silvio.
As a serio comic sort of mediaeval jester Mr. Widdi-
comb won the house last evening, according to his
wont, whatever he does, to frequent bursts of laughter.
As the villian of the plot, the purely apocryphal
Judael de Medici, Mr. Emery evidenced, once more,
from first to last, his wonderful powers of facial ex-
pression. The dresses were marvels of picturesque
beauty and, here and there even, of magnificence. The
scenery was elaborate and effective. The coup de
Watre at the close of the piece resembles more the
transformation wrought by the flicker of the lithe
wand of a Harlequin than anything else we ever
remember to have witnessed, save in the grand
transformation - scene of a Pantomime. Any
mere verbal description of it would be inadequate.
It must be seen to bo comprehended. Remembering
what has here been said in regard to the " Watch-
Cry," it is only reasondtale mat we should add in
Mr. Fechter's interests and in the interests of his
Theatre—speaking, moreover, avowedly, as among
the number of his heartiest admirers—that we
earnestly hope the new Play, after a reasonable
interval has enabled the town in some measure to
satisfy its curiosity in respect to it, may be suc-
ceeded by some other Drama, worthier in all
essential particulars of the Lyceum Company, and
of the refined artist who is its chiefest star as well
as its manager.