The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-24 00:00:00

(From the Times.)

The theory of Mr. Fechter, practically manifested last
night, is not to be sought merely in his own performance of
the principal character. The lago of Mr. Ryder and the
Desdemona of Miss Leclercq must be regarded as embody-
ing to a certain extent the conceptions of the ingenious in-
novator, for they must have been forced to unlearn all they
retained of stage tradition before they could move easily
in the path prescribed for them in the rehearsals. All
those details of:action which are technically expressed by the
word "business" have been changed, and the work is pre-
sented under an aspect entirely new. People sit where they
were wont to stand, are scattered about where they
used to be huddled together, are formed into pic-
turesque groups where they once were marshalled
into the unvarying straight line. When Othello hears
the first insinuations of lago, he is quietly writing his
despatches at a table ; when lago utters his satire against
woman, he is leaning on a pillar, with his merry listeners
gathered around him; when the death of Roderigo takes
place, it is with all the preparation and circumstance of a
grand melodramatic murder. And so on through the en-
tire piece. Having, in his preface, declared war against
" tradition," as tho wormeaten and unwholesome prison
where dramatic art languishes in fetters, Mr. Fechter car-
ries his hostility to the utmost. Woe to the merely con-
ventional actor, who, relying on his knowledge of routine,
shall venture on the path now prescribed. He will find
himself on the right hand when he ought to be ou the left,
he will knock against chairs and tables when he expects to
find a clear pathway before him ; he will stand in isolated
wretchedness when he ought to form one of a well.devised
group. The position of some quiet gentleman who stumbles
by mistake into the midst of a polking party, to be hustled
by all tho dancers, will furnish the best parallel to the
possible case of the conventional actor who attempts to
play a leading part in the newly arranged Othello.
Mr. Fechter's impersonation of the Moor is, from its
thorough novelty, in perfect keeping with the whole of the
performance. The audience are astonished to find an actor
so instinctively shrinking from clap-trap that speeches
which from time immemorial have been followed by loud ap-
plause are now scarcely distinguished from the rest of the
text. The same theory, doubtless, that has caused him to
restore Bianca has made him so far diminish the show of
suspicion in the Moor's character that he very tardily listens
to the insinuations of Ingo, and does not begin to feel a
tinge of jealousy till he has long paused over passages
which preceding Othellos have spoken in a whirlwind
of fury. Nothing can exceed the subtlety with which he
indicates the progress of jealous uneasiness, or the delicacy
with which he displays a tenderness for Desdemona that
remains unconquerable to the last. ' The movements of
his face tell a whole history of internal suffering; you may
plainly perceive him logically working out the reason for
his own misery; the exhibition throughout is highly intel-
lectual and refined, but still we would suggest something
like an occasional expenditure of force on verbal expres-
sion. Surely a line may be drawn between the Scylla of
rant and the Charybdis of ineffectiveness; and it is possible
to make an occasional appeal to the undiscriminating mul-
titude, without offending those who can pursue the thread
of a subtle ratiocination.