Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-04-12
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.
THE DRAM A.


Miss Anna Dickinson as " Hamlet.
The audience that assembled in Fulton
opera house last night to witness Miss
Anna DickinsOn's impersOnatiOn Of the
melancholy Dane was rather sparse as to
numbers, cold and undemonstrative as to
quality, and apparently dominated by a
feeling Of extreme caution lest they might
be betrayed into the manifestation of ap-
prevail of what the critics high and
mighty of the New York and Philadelphia
newspapers have condemned with such
boisterous energy. People of ordinarily
just temper who read the severe notices of
Miss Dickinson's performances prior to
her appearance here could scarcely help
feeling that their tone was inspired more
by the desire to down the little woman
and force her to retire from the work she
has undertaken than by any sincere pur-
pose of maintaining the standard of his
trionic art at a plane hedged about by
defenses that would render it reasonably
secure against the transforming fraternity.
Nor was this impression disabused in the
minds of fair-thinking people who went to
Fulton opera house last night with the
genuine purpose of adjudging Miss Dick
inson's Hamlet solelyOn its own merits and
without prejudice. For certainly, though
not an ideal representation Of the character
that has tested the intellectual faculties
and dramatic capacities of scholars and
actors since the time of it's great author,
+ fair target for the savage assaults
that have greeted her essay of the past.
If the character as rendered last night had
been by an actor of the masculine gender,
in all probability it would have been mild
1ryn iosco1 ifc ip,porfoofiono voivfol ont
in a general way, and some wholesome
lessons read by these same censors Of the
drama, who with such general accord have
dissected the impersonation with Il minute
particularly that did not fail to note
each separate sin of omission aud of CON-
mission and damn tho whole from begin
ming to end. The able observation of one
critic that Miss Dickinson is obliged to ex.
hibit her legs in the part and that therefore
she should be discouEtenanced is unique as
an illustration of the spirit that has seemed
to move her judges. Miss Dickinson is
not the Hamlet Shakespeare made, but
there never has been such !; and it is unjust
and untrue to assert that she is entirely
wanting in apprehension of the
part and without any idea Of dramatic
rudimen.s. Her reading was always in
telligent, though occasionally the inner
meaning of line Or passage was indistinetly
produced. Her greatest fault lies in an
inability to sink her individuality in the
part her auditor never fOrgets that she
is q womam and that woman Anna Dick
inson. The argument that this is due to
the novelty of feminine impersonation
of a role never. before so attempted is
scarcely good one. Her strong forceful
nature cries out against imprisonment in
any other garb than that of self, and this
seems apparently an insurmOuntable OBJ
stacle to q full measure Of success in the
role. She needs to suppress Il tendency to
declamatory effect, which is especially
noticeable in the soliloquies. and there
are many stage tricks and gestures that
have taken hold OF her, and that she can
shake off if she will but try. Miss Dick
insOn's fine facial expression was employed
with good effect in the delivery Of her
lines.
The supporting company was uniformly
bad, if Miss Lille Joycc's Ophelin be
omitted. The latter was a pleasing and
artistic performance. The stage manage
ment was execrable. The preparation for
the final scene raised such hullaballOo
in the rear of the stage that the dialogue
of the actors was almost indistinguishable;
tho waits between acts were distressingly
long and stretched the performance out to
half past eleven, while a provoking blunder
was made in giving the signal for lowering
the curtain while Hrmlet was delivering
his dying speech, and it had to be raised
again to allow him to finish.