The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1873-01-28
RIP TAN WINKLE

Inc prOQlcLl0n IOr lue utoU 'i"Ao "PS "
boards of the Academy Of MIR. Jetersons Hip
Van Wrinkle is an event to be cnronlcleo IN
the dramatic annals of Charleston with more
than ordinary garrulity. We nave aireaoy
spoken of Mr. Jsfferson's personal claims
upon the attention of Charleston audience;
of bIs ella, ms as dramatic artist it would be
quite superHuous to speak. That they were Ia
milIar to our readers, and fully recognized oy
them. was evident from the fact that, long oe-
fore the first nights performance began, nearly
every seat had been taken for all the tnree
nights Of the engagement. And the crowd
which last evening filed the seats and
thronged the aisles and stood, where standing
room was to be found, all over the theatre,
testified most amply, frat by their presence
and next by their absorbed and eager atten-
ton and sympathy, to the wonderful truth
and power of the representation before them.
To crltclse in detail Mr.. Jefferson's acting
IN this part is a work Of supererogation win
which we willingly dispense. 1t is sufficient
to say that the prominent, artistic truth Whicn
1t illustrates is, briefly stated, the great power
of symmetry and proportion In dramatic rep
resentation. The conception with which Mr..
Jefferson has here to deal is one grotesque,
unusual, and-to use the familiar cant phrase
of shallow criticism unnatural. The lesson
| which his rendering of the character teaches
| is that by just attention to detail, and har'
monious proportion Of parts, even the natu'
rally grotesque may be made artisticay SYM
metrlcal, and the absurd, uncouth figure OF
s.the drunken Dutch ragabond" be
shown to preach profounder homily
than the palid and sceptred tragedy OF an ap-
| psrently more ambitious Art. To llnk humor
with pathos, 30 that the deep spiritual con-
nection between them may be allowed its own
subtle evolution, unforced by the anxiety to
make "ponts," aud uudegraded by any of the
mere ad captanduna resorts OF the charlatan;
to let character unwind and unfold Itself, alter
the fashioh of actual existence, by hint here
and talf unconscious self-betrayal there,
never "cVerstepping the modesty of nature"
vet never forgetting the regulating and har-
monizing cunning Of art; this is the task set
to the actor who attempts the portrayal OF
such a role as that OF the worthless, harmless,
simple, shrewd, Immoral and yet not immoral,
ridiculous, yet intensely pathetic figure OF the
outcast OF Sleepy Hollow.
1t ls unnecessary TO say that In Mr.. Jefer-
sons acting this task Is almost perfectly &C
compllsned. Step BY step, from the prologue
to the final exit, the tangled skein Of charac-
ter Is urravelled, and all the hum an nature In
poor old Rip Van Winkle Is spread out to the
sympathizing view Of his fellow mortals ''slt.
ting at The play"
And thus, as In all real human experience,
the spectator passes by insenslble gradatlons
from clouds to sunshine, and like Huldah, ln
Lowell. famous poem, he finds himself at one
and the same time
"An kind OF smily roqni the lips,
And teary round the lashes."
The arch involuntary humor of the genial
scapegrace is made most wonderfully 10 sur.
vlve In a shadowy, episodoal sort of, way
amidst The touching simple pathos of the per-
plexed and bewlldered old man, whose heart
is still as tender as his speech Is soft and his
will is weak. We never for moment share
his doubt as to his thorough Indemnity with the
vagsbond Rip of the first act. We see and
feel that the hoary ne'er do well is only Rip
grown old, with the rich full nature made
fuller and richer and simpler by his twenty
years. sleep, but surviving In bis every word
and look and gesture In just that strange mys-
tical way which startles us often In the real
people whom we know.
But we may not multiply words, and, as we
said before, we do not mean to attempt de-
tailed criticism. 1t Is enough to say that here
ls nearly perfect artistic study, failing less
through excess or defect than perhaps any
other 10 be met with at present on the drama
tic stage. Those who have seen it once will
see it again II they can, and none that have
seen 1t will ever, we Imagine, forget it.
Tonight, of course, Rip Van Wrinkle will be
repeated, and on Wednesday morning, as has
already been stated, Mr.. Jefrerson's son will
appear In two famous old farces whose mirth-
fulness is we'll known to all old play.goers.