Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-19
THE PARTISAN STAGE.
DAUDETs NEW PLAYA VENTURE BY
DUMAS.
Some Interesting Anecdotes of Partisan
Plays and Partisan Theaters-
A Posthumous Opera.
PARIS, January "a, 1881

PARIS, January "a, 1881.
Dramatic writers all seem to have been
engaged at their work at the same time, to
have planted seed at the same season, if one
may Judge by the general harvest which
has suddenly filled all the theaters with
new pieces, like rich grain stored in ware
house, or rather in mill, to be ground out
for the consumption of the ever hungry
public. This general arrival of the good
things from the hands of authors began
with ''Jack, ive-act drama by Mr.. AL
phonse Daudet and Mr. Lafontaine, at the
Odeon Theater. This drama is taken from
Mr.. Daudet's novel of the same name.
Alphonse Daudet is well known in the
United States, for some of his best works
have been translated into English, and well
received in both England and America,
particularly his very interesting novel OF
" Froment ieune ct Risler aine, which
first drew public attention to him, and
opened for him the gate leading to
the road of success. This book was
dramatized, and the piece was played for
quite while in one of the Partisan thea
tiers, but it would not of course meet with
the same success, since the authors power
and charm lie in his exquisite descriptions
and the fine poetical coloring given to his
language, which are necessarily lost in a
play.
''THE NABOB"
Was translated into English by the wife of
our Vice-Consul and well-known CORE.
spondent, Mrs. Lucy Hooper. 1t was not
to be expected that this book would meet
with much success out of France, for its
chief interest lies in tracing all the charac-
tiers to persons of real life, some of whom
are dead, and not few still living. This
work was read by avidity by all Parisians
old enough to be well acquainted with the
political characters of the Empire and to
have remarked the types peculiar to that
time. This book was also dramatlzed, and
meet with considerable success on the
boards of the Vaudeville Theater, where
an actor of some fame, who had spent
several years in Russia, made his reappear-
ance before Partisan public and created
the principal role of 1.-THE Nabob," Jan
soulet. Mr.. Dupuis found so much
favor with the public aud critics that
there was considerable talk about his
entering the Theatre Francois, and in fact
the director OF that theater, Mr. Perrin,
made some advantageous propositions to
him, but they came to no definite under
standing, and the distih guished actor still
forms a part of the troupe at the Naude-
Notifications in +hfc
play, as in Froment jeune ct Risler aine, y
which, while satisfying the theater- going
people, changed natural results into almost
improbable ones, and therefore diminished
the strength of the authors reasoning.
With Jack there were fewer changes
made to place it on the stage, but one
hardly expected that story so sad and
touching could be rendered sufficiently
dramatic to please so heterogeneous an
audience as that of the theater; for even
though many people prefer to cry than
laugh, there are but few who would will
ingly vary their emotions, and " Jack p
from beginning to end requires constant
use of the handkerchief. Of all the
romances which have contributed to the
reputation of Mr.. Alphonse Daudet, Jack. y
is perhaps the one in which the finest
and most learned observation Of types is
produced, but it is at the same time the
saddest, for it touches your heart by
what is the most affecting in life
the abandonment of a child, and one feels
the cold cutting steel of an impossible op-
orator in the moral vivisection, whose
patient is the deserted boy. He takes him
almost from the cradle and follows him to
the tomb, passing by all the stations of this
Calvary without sparing US fall or a
wound, and allows love to appear as a
consoling light in his dark path, only to
extinguish it almost before it has had time
to spread its ditfusing rays. Jack is
THE CHILD OF HAZARD,
Whose mother brought him into the world
in defiance of the laws of society. When
he was but an infant his mother associated
her existence with that of man named
Dargenton, sort of poet who believed
himself unappreciated by the world, and
out of revenge for its Indifference vented
his discomfort on the little Jack, From
the time the little boys mind began to
awaken and his body to develop, the bonn
bastic, cruel man did not hesitate to be-
numb the one and break the other. The
mother is one of those giddy, uncon-
scious and irresponsible creatures to
whom maternity is but name, and she
proved a fit companion to the pulled
up creature bloated with his own
conceit and pompous phrases. Little Jack
is in this mans way, and so he is appren-
ticed to workman at Indret, and after
ward to the engineer of vessel. The
drama does not begin until his return,
when having escaped from the shipwreck
of the Cydmus, he arrives worn out by the
fortunes of this terrible life and is attacked
by the disease which is soon to carry him
off. He finds again the good DR., Rivals,
who had protected him when child, and
! the granddaughter of the doctor, Cecile,
whose heart is touched by his sutferings.
But will he be able to conquer his mothers
heart after having chased from the house
the cruel man who prevented him when
Young from gaining her affection ? No,
because this slow assassination OF the child
by it's mother, with the grotesque compile
ity of the paramouT, has to be accom-
plished thus the implacable logic of this
study wills it, logic both oppressive and
cruel, which is clearly and finely expressed
throughout Ihe pages OF the romance, III
the book one follows the sad phases of this
life and becomes attached to it, for the
reason that the readers heart is touched
by the sufferings of the hero and suffers
with him. The author, with the col
alteration of an eminent actor who con-
sented to invest himself with the character
of the odlous Dargenton, has attempted to
transport this poignant emotion to the the
| ater 1t is true the tears come to your
eyes during the whole five acts, although
the first part of the novel, so teaching in
the sufferings of the child, are not repre-
sented on the stage. In the book the read
er, when he wishes, closes the pages and
puts stop for the time being to his emo
ton, but in the play there is no possible
! respite from the sorrow which fills his
heart to overlooking and threatens to