The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-03-26
ApRIENEE LEcouvRsuR.
As Presented on Saturday Evening by Mile
Rhea

The well -heralded Rhea has come and
gone leaving, however, some of the most
pleasant dramatic fecollections which
center in the cosy auditorium of Harpers
I Theatre. 70 say that everybody, old and
young, Of the splendid audience which
assembled on Saturday evening to
formally welcome her to Rock Island was
fully satisfied with the gifted Belgian's
histrionic display; to say that the really
somewhat extIayagant expectations of
each were fully met, would be but half
way expression, after ALL From the
moment of her first entree uatil the cur
tain descended finally upon the strikingly
realistic death scene her face pretty yet
intellectual, her handsome figure, her
marked foreign accentuation and her won
derful portrayal of human emotions car
ried her audience captive and the memory
of that first evening with Rhea will linger
like the fragrance of the raress exotics.
| long after the flower itself has departed.
About the play there really seems but
| little to be heartily commended 1t is
very largely one of those superficial
compounded intrigue, in which the males
are plotting against the happiaess of
each other and the females are but little
better and end in a general convnlsion,
| insanity, DEATH dclirium tremens or in
some other equally unhappy direction.
| Adrenue Lecouvreur is an actress and
we need not dive farther into the incom
prehensibie than to say that to great ex
tent the play is by far too faithful a
portraiture of French society ways. In
The hands of Rhea and her excellent sup
| porting company, however, the most pos
sible is made of it, and the tempest of
conflicting emotions such as grief. jealousy,
rage, love, despair etc, was never more
correctly depicted in Rock Island than by
Mile Ishca.
As Maurice DeSaxe Mr. Harris was
good bat when the play seemed to re
| quire the exhibition by himself of a state
of feeling akin To that of the fair Airienne
it was apparent he was beyond his depth.
In other words while his general stage
presence was very prepossessing, his in
Elections good and his love making fair. it
| to solid pathos or misery into which the
average volatile Frenchman finds him
self tor short time only,) when baked
in some pet scheme, his hearts idol, as it
were fag. the time heipts
Michonet, the stage precept or and
chaperone generally of Adrienne was
most happily impersonated by Mr.. c. A.
McMamus, whose almost childish bursts
of grief and happiness commingled were
quite correctly interpreted and invariably
created a roar Mac" who is now
little over fifty years old. has been
| great favorite with the theatre going
pub lie almost since his boyhood and when
| Rhea revisits Rock Island she must sure
| ly bring the ''stage prompter" along, the
old chap who so badly wanted TO be a
| ''Socetaire of the Comede Franchise"
Mr.. J. r. Amory was the French Abbc
| to perfection. that sort of Able who is
| ever willing to crook the hinges of the
knee that thrift might follow fawning."
As Princess De Bullion Miss Eugene
Lindeman scored a most pronounced
artistic success. In showing that "hell
hath no fury like a woman scorned" she
seemed scarcely a whit behind Rhca. Her
appearance was greatly in her favor at
the outset and this combined with ex-
cell ent enumeration and meditation and
the absolute loss of self in impersonation
constituted her effort one of the most
forcible and generally satisfactory of the
evening.
Miss Grace Hall sustained The character
of another female intriguer, the Duchesse
Duclot, (not Daumont as the programme
had it, } most admirably
The others in the cast all did the
work assigned them creditably. In a
word, therefore, Rhea, herself, more than
fulfilled the general expectation and her
excellent English, after but about years
study of the language, was the theme of
much commentator. At times, how
ever, when almost violently declamatory
utterance and action seemed necessary, it
was about as easy to understand what she
said as if she was talking in Chinese
Should Rhea again visit Rock Island
everybody present on Saturday night
would turn out again, but nobody, we
venture to say, ever wants to see Adm
enne Lecouyreur again. The tone OF
the. play, while not of itself positively
gross, is of an unhealthful character. In
the first place we find Maurice De SAKE
playing fast and loose. for time, between
the Princess De bullion and Adrienne,
the former of whom knows of his title all
the way through, while the latter knows
him, only as Maurice, the soldier. till
toward the last Prince De Bullion is
after the Duchess Duclot peil nell. while
his wife is determined that if she cannot
have De SAKE nobody else shall, so she
finally poisons Adrienne fatally by for
wardiEg bouquet to her, well loaded
with subtle poison (the bouquet