The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-19
AT THE THEATERS.
The Current Attractions This Week.-Mrs.
Fanny Davenport in Fedora"

Mr.. Rehans company pleased another good
audience at the Grand last night by their enter
| tanning presentation of the clever comedy
''Seven- Twenty Eight" 1t will be repeated to-
night and this afternoon, and tomorrow night
Miss Lizzie Evans, young actress of excellent
ability will begin an engagement presenting
"Foggs Ferry" and 'Dew-Drop in which she has
met with much success elsewhere.
At Englishs, tomorrow night and during the
remainder of the week, Miss Charlotte Thomp-
son, the favorite actress, will play return en-
gagement, presenting the "Sea of Ice, in which
she has never before appeared in this city She
is supported by Mr. G. G. Craig and compe
tent company.
Mr.. Joseph Reynolds is in the city arranging
for the appearance of Mrs. Langtry at the Grand
Opera-house next Wednesday evening, in W. S.
Gllberts play "Pygmalion and Galatea."
MISS DAVENPORT AND FEDORA
Fanny Davenports appearance in Fedora at
the Grand next week promises to be theatrical
event of more than ordinary Importance. In
New York city, where Fedora" enjoyed a run of
nearly one hundred nights, it became literally
the talk of the town, and a regular Fedora"
craze seized upon the populaee For period of
several months Fanny Davenport's portraits
monopolzed the shop-windows and dead walls.
1t was unanimously acknowledged to be the
distinct dramatic hit of the year, and
the receipts of the New York engagement alone
are said to have reached $50 900.
| Miss Davenport in America has duplicated
| Sarah Bernhardt's Partisan triumph in the part
1T is the role TO which Miss Davenport" said
| Mr.. Klaw her representative, yesterday, "has
given her best study and her success in Improves
| beyond question that she has heretofore suffered
considerably from dramatic insists She is now
in the best years of her life and has returned to
! America 1.-THE and beautiful in form and face as
| you remember her ten years ago"
'How old is Miss Davenport
''She is now but thirty two-though she has
! been the stage nearly twenty five years.
| In letter written recently by her to Mr..
! Stephen Fiske, of the Spirit of the Times, she
| says: My first appearance on any stage was at
| the Howard Atheneum, Boston, on July f. 1855
| when my father and mother and the whole com
pany sang The Star Spanged Banner | stood
| beside my mother and held the American flag
| when the line The star spangled banner in tri-
| umph shall wave was sung. From
the first year he took the theater Il was then
| seven) my father put my name in the list OF the
| company, because it pleased me and made me
| think was on the stage
How came Miss Davenport to secure Fe-
| dora when there was so much managerial com
| petition for its possessionF
''You are right, there was a regular Kilkenny
| fight and scramble to get Fedora 1t is play
combining every element of artistic and fnan-
cial success when in the hands of competent
actors Beginning with assassination and end
| ing in suicide, it runs the whole gamut of the
human passions and yet never descends to the
| tawdriness and far-fetchedness of melodrama.
| Fedora according to Bernhardt, is second
| creation of woman the incarnation Of all
| feminine charms and defects, a fallen angel
with white wings! But you want to know how
she got it. Through no less parsonage than
| Bernhardt herself. who has been a warm
| friend of Miss Davenport ever since
the two travelled through this countryin honora-
| BILE rivalry three years ago Bernhardt wrote to
Sardou, if you want the American production
| of Fedora to combine all the elements of pecu-
MARY and artistic success, let Miss Davenport
have it Since her great success Sardou has
written Miss Davenport several congratulatory
letters, and is evidently much elated to know
| she gave her great talents to the part. Fedora
| is likely to become of the classics of theatPi
cal literature, and has already been pronounced
by Labouchere, of the London Truth, "a modern
| tragedy"