New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-11-10
ORLEANS THURSDAY NOVEMBER
Academy Of Music.

-'-~~N'
The drama of Rip Van Wrinkle" will be
| produced again this evening at the Academy
Of Music The play, and the role of Mr..
MCWade, requires more than one repetition
in order to form fair judgment of its
merits. We think the play improves on
more intimate acquaintance; at any rate, it
must improve to the reflective portion of
the audience, for it ;s only after several
representations that the varied, delicate
phases in the character of Rip Von Wlnklc,
as rendered by Mr McWade. can be
fully appreciated. The 6cte uoir of the
drama the chap that intends to have either
the hand or the fortune of Miss Steenic Van
Winkle, has abandoned the standard
deliver style, which, however suitable to n
fellow whose father feeds his tiOcks ON the
Grampian Hills, is altogether out of place
III q third-rate business man, resident in q
tifthrate town. If Miss Amelia Waugh
will persist i'll playing old woman, We are
compelled in candid criticism to say that if
all the old women looked SO young and so
icyeable, they could get married as easily
as the young ones.
The Improvement in subordinate charac-
ters tells in favor of Mr.. McWade's imperso-
nation of the principal character.
When we say that Rip Van Winkle "
improves on acquaintance, we do not mean
that Mr. McWade's performance now in any
way excels that of his first appearance, but
that the perceptions of the audience, and
their appreciation of the nice points of his
delineatiOn have improved.
II has dawned on the audience that the
performance of Grip van Winkle" must be
Judged per Sc; and this. for the simple
reason that the character, as deGneated by
Mr.. McWade. ia in no sense an imitation.
1t is evident that he has taken Irving's
story and studied it without reference to
any other performance. and has then given
his ideas OF the character in the play.
We consider, too, that Mr. McWade, like
Dominick Murray, although compelled for
the sake of effect, to introduce some slight
exaggeration Of the natural. has the happy
faculty of never OVERRIDING the part
If we are not mistaken, Mr.. McWade him
sclf wrote the drama. We think he has
| erred somewhat in concentrating all the in
terest OF tho piece in one single character.
A necessity of adhering to the original le-
geEd can not be adduced as q reason for
this, for although the plot is closely in ac
cordance with lrving's story it is not alto
gether so. When Rip returns from his
twenty years sojcurn in the land of dreams,
he finds his daughter grown up and mar
ried For the sake of dramatic effect, Nc
lover and little courtship to sweeten the
plot. The introduction of a semiknave, in
connection With a bargain about the future
marriage of the children, is also deviation
from Irying's stcrv If these dcviations are
allowable, they might have been extended.
so as to have strengthened the interest of
the play by the introduction of some addi-
tion.l incident. Had this been done, the
drama would have been all the more
10Th tp iDfa
the Inain incident and the principal char
acter.
IN ore feature McWades drama differs
from any theatrical performance that we
can remember. And this which, by some,
has been censured a defect. is in our
opinion an actual improvement. We allude
to the length of time it takes Rip to collect
his scattered senses when he encounters the
epirits of the Catskill Mountains. and the
somewhat prolonged process of getting him
self in walking order after his twenty years
of soInnolent reCumbency on the cold, hard
ground. Those who draw their ideas of the
theatrical fitness Of things from theatrical
usage, may regard this q defect and heavi-
ness. So do not We.
In fact, one great reason why histrionic
performances do not better hold the mirror
up % nature is that the time allotted to
scene CT an incident on the stage is too
short. For instance in 'Roneo and Juliet"
on tho dawn of s}uiiets wedding day, old
Ccp7tist enters exulting that his house is to
be allied with one Of ltAys noblest. His
pride as & nOAleman, as the head Of his
house. is gratifed-so is his ambition, SO is
his fatherly pride AS he comes his heart
swelling viii outspoken joy, he is met by
the appalling cry that his daughter is dead
We can fancy the aged father, his very
blood curdling, stunned at the sudden hor-
ror, crushed beneath the calamity so over
wheiming and SO unexpected. We can
fancy the time it would take to recover, in
the very slightest, enough Of mental equi
polse even TO enable him to comprehend his
bitter Voc. And then, the long hours Of
dull agony. utterly without nope: for hope
is dead with his daughter Juliet Yet. ia
Shakespeare's tragedy, old Iapulct disroses
OF the whole matter in twenty lines. and the
audience is astounded to see how easily he
gets over It.
No one can say that this is no defect 1t
Is submitted to because, like the "wolf'' in
the timing of u church organ, it is in
ovitable; but it is not the less defect.
Now, in our Judgment, hr. McWade has
avoided this defect III every instance. par
ticufarly in the scene where Rip Van Winkle
w.Lkes Up, an aged and white haired man.
so far from making it drag as some have
objected, the beautiful in the delineation is
Greatly heightened by this very dragging"
1t ought to be different, certainly, if the
actor was playing the part of waiter at Il
steamboat dinner table, but not with re-
suseitated HIP Van iyinkte. And if any
critic persists in asserting that Rip should
get up quicker. let such critic go to the
Catskill Mountains, sleep on the ground
there tor twenty years, and then rise to
his feet IN less time than McWade's Rip
I0n Ninklc does, if he can.
We do not hesitate to predict that should
Robert McWade adhere to the histrionic
profession, his future career will be emf
DeRtiy successful.