New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-01-29
arm. The charm with NJ. Sardou Is not of very


high quality: he make play very much as he would
make pudding; he has his well-tested recipe and
his little stores of sugar and SPICE from which he
extracts with an unimpassoned hand exactly the
proper quantity of each. The pudding 10 capital,
but can think Of no writer of equal talent who
puts 50 little of himself into his writing Search NJ.
Sardou's plays through and you will not find trace
of personal conviction, Of moral emotion, Of an
intellectual temperament. of anything that makes
the "atmosphere" Of work. They seem to have
been produced in a sort of mental vacuum. But
they are not played In a vacuum by any MEANS and
"Fe6Ol bids fair to for good part of the rest
of the Winter. 1t has made the reputation, and,
Electrically. the fortune of an admirable young
actor named Worms. | don't know when have
seen piece of acting that has given me such I'M
mitigated satisfaction NJ Worms's representation
of the distracted hero of this piece. He has seen
man murdered he himself was leaving clandes-
timely at o'clock i'll the morning the house OF
the woman he loves and his lips are sealed by the
fact of his position. His best friend is arrested on
suspicion and condemned by the strongest crcum-
stantial evidence and yet he cannot make declara-
ton which involves publication of the cireum-
stance that his point Of view a witness, was the
garden wall of Nine. de Bos-Martcl. This lady
(who had imprudcnty permitted his visit is in
equal Distress and the unhappy couple are bufeted
to and fro between the of their duty and OF
their dangers. | need not say how the problem is
solved for sooner or later, suppose "ferreol Will
be adapted" But in losing NJ. Worms it will lose
half its power. This young actor has gilt of quiet
realism. of mingled vehemence and discretion, Of
mpassioned self-contrOl which places him ut jump
beside Delaunay, the classic jeune premier of the
Theatre Francas, whom, however, he resembles
only in the perfection Of his art. The Francas has
promptly marked him for her own. Under her fos-
terng care he can ripen and develop at his ease.
Actors are just now indeed rather too much at
their ease at this establishment which has produced
this Winter but a single new piece-a little one-act
comedy by NJ Paeron. When the Theatre Fran
Gals do nothing else, as a critic said the other
day. she can drape herself in her majcsty-shc can
draw from her immense historical rcpcrtory. The
drapery is most voluminous and becoming, but the
terms of the Theatre Francalss magnificent contract
with the State are that she shall increase her In
hertance and think of the future well as the past
~ Paeron's comedy petite Pluie" by name. has
had moderate success, which it owes wholly to the
incompatible skill of Nine Plessy. There is n
double interest in watching Nine. Plessy, as with
the present Winter she is to close her long and bril-
liant career. She has probably never done anything
more purely brilliant than the part she plays In the
piece have just mentioned The comedy treats of
a young woman who has eloped from q villa on the
French Riviera, near the Italian frontier, with
secretary of legation, and who arrives with her
lover in her ball-dress at wayside inn. to which
the guilty couple have been driven by a sudden
storm and by fracture of the shafts of their
carriage. Here they are overtaken Ivy the friend
from whose domicile. while paying her a visit aud
dancing at her ball, the fair fugitive has fed-a
clever OF the world, who disapproves
altogether Of elOpements, takes skeptcal view Of
love, and recommends Nine. dc ThIais 10 return TO
her husband, shabby fellow as he is. While the
secretary Of legation out under the she'd poterng
hisbroken shaft with the drowsy nnkecper, the
two ladies have it out together. The elder one
riddles her friends illusions with her w.t. gives her
a Wholesome fright, and with courtesy to the
naughty attache takes her of under her arm. This
scene is acted by Nine Plessy with spirit and style
and grace-what the French call all authority
which certainly the last ward of high comedy.
Nine. Plessy is not to my thinking a woman Of
genius; she is not even sympathetic actress
there is something always rather hard and metallic
in her style But she is 30 consummate, ~ accom-
plished perfect amstrcss of the subtes resources
Of her art, that to follow her through the light
and shade of long speech Is not merely an
amusement but real intellectual profit. When
think Of all the experience, the observation, the
reflection, the contact with life and art which are
summed up in such mellow maturity of skill,
am struck with kind of vcncration. OF the other
theaers there is nothing very important to narratc.
The "Revue" prevails at several Of them, notably
at the Varieties which is supposed to be its strong
hod-that dreary, 1msy burcsque of the events Of
the year, which s the prcteXt for 80 many bad
Jokes aud undrcsscd fgrGntes. The Palais Royal IT,
as always, exhanstngly eXharating with "Le
Panachc," q long farce in which the element of
quiet comedy is thought 20 be more marked than
usual This speaks well for the farces of the past.
Lastly, the Vaudeville with Les Scandales d'hcr'
and company gmuentedby Pierre BertOn from the
Francois, and Mile. Pierson of the Gymnase-mystc-
rious fugtives bOth-has been expanding some very
good acting q very indifferent play.
Henry JAMES JR.
TIE WAR IN TURKEY.