The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-09-14
DRAMATIC AND LYRIC.
THE Story and Play of Called
Back.
rup NEW SCHOOL OF ACTING.
off for sIcGuire-Irying Comes
vest After All = Barratt in
nutte-PrOfessOr stephens
miscellaneous.

Nearly everybody has read Hugh Con-
~. remarkable story of Called Back,
Nd the fact that play has been taken
s the same novel will be noted with
:ptsrest. In London the drama was. a
Is. 1T remarkable success, Alice Lingard
l-o famous hit in the lady char
..or In New York the play was pro
s ,saod for the first time last week, and
tho following clipping from that able
a snT 1.-THE Spirit Of the Times, gives some
PaP'G ~ the differences existing between
The book and the play:
One of the best modes OF determining
tho success of any new play IS TO ask
'S,,onrself whether you would like 10 see
I apain. Judged by this standard
called Back is not legitimate success.
II nav be for time a success OF noto-
l;o4v q success of curiosity; but nobody
III Iii care to sit through it twice. Now,
tba neople who come to see a play again
md bring their friends make the
fortunes of managers; those who
onIv attend once and tell their
friends that they are disappointed
Nth helm to nay the preliminary ex-
Denses. AS book, Called Back IS odd,
bizarre, interesting but amateurlsh. As
play, it is thin, conventional 1nelo1
drama. equally amateurish. Inc n0Vei
was written for a provincial! Lngllsh
naner by a business man In brlStol, VINO
woke to find himself famous and Is now
the literary lion of London. Inc play
was dramatized by COmynS Carr, VINO
takes all the quaintness out OF the story
and knows so little OF dramatlc CON
struction as to put the managers 10 the
unnecessary expense OF conulNlng tricK
scenes for an ordinary drama. In the
noyeI the hero IS blind and strayS by
accident into house were murdeT Is
committed. The murderers spare MS
life because he cannot identity them.
His sight restored, he travels TO Italy 70
recoyeT his health and falls in love with
an italian girl. Recognizing her IN
England, he proposes to marry her, Is
accepted by her guardian, and, after
the wedding, discovers that she IS IN
sane Ina trance she relives the scene
of the murder, at which she was present,
and the hero undertakes to hunt
down the murderers. He traces
the crime to a gang of Italian con-
spirators and is cOnfounded by the in
formation that the seducer Of his wife
was their victim. The leader of the
conspirators can tell him the truth, and
the hero follows this man to Siberia and
obtains the proofs of his wife's purity.
Returning to England, he is made
happy in the love Of the heroine, who
has regained her reason. All this Is
original and the novel tells it in an orig
inal manner. But, in the play, the story
is made dreadful commonplace. The
hero falls in love with an Italian girl,
who follows him to England and finds
him suffering from a disease of the eyes.
She attends a meeting of conspirators
and he goes with her-not to see her
home; he is too blind for that; but so as
to help form a tableau after the murder.
He thinks that the heroine is slain,
which is absurd. Intriguing with
the conspirators to avenge her, he
finds her insane. He does not marry
her, but INDUCES in baselesS suspicious
suspicious of her purity. To dissipate
these he goes to Paris; then to Siberia.
He takes the unsupported word OF one
villain that she is impure, and the uE-
supported word of another villain that
she is all right. Having thus displaced
the utmost imbecility and completely
forfeited the sympathy of the audience,
he is rewarded by the love of the
heroine, and the happy pair are
promptly made accessories to anoher
murder-that of the villain who is
stabbed on the stage by Nihiiist.
Without the brcking of the book, the
play is simple subbish. Compared with
the book, it is so inferior as to be worth
less. ANY experienced dramatist could
turn the novel into a better play. The
only hope for Called Black is the ad-
Nartianment OF the nnYel