The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-01-01
OTHELLO.
How 1t was Performed by,a Negro Com
pany.

pany.
There was q performance of"Othello"
in New York recently which one may
well believe to be without q rival, as
the Times says it was, judgingfromits
account of the tragedy. The play, we
are told, differed from that with which
New York audiences are familiar In
manv particulars, chief of which was
that the characters were all Moors.
Th1s made the rage of one Brabantio,
because his daughter had married
OtbeIlo, little difficult to understand.
This trivial circumstance, however,
aid not weigh heavily upon the minds
of the AstOr-place tragedians, and
thev proceeded to make things just as
IiveIy for Othello as if he had been
common white trash. The Times
critioue runs thusly:
Othello, the lord high ~executioner Of
Venice, was impersonated by Ben
iamin J. Ford. Mr.. Ford makes the
hart UP much darker than Salvini
does, and even than Gustavus Brooke
was wont to do. Mr.. Ford's dark
makeup, however, does not prevent
him from standing considerably over
six feet in his thighs and giving the
audience q great deal of Othello for
their mt Mr.. Ford has a voice
which extends from the sub-cellar of
the base clef to the third floor, back of
the tenor, and is capable of spreading
itself over q large portion of the COM
munity at one time. The quality Of
the voice is distinctly cheerful. The
lower notes have much ofthe pathetic
mellOwness Of the contra fagotto, while
the upper notes are like the lascivious
piping of the E-tat clarionet. lago
was represented by j. A. Arneaux, OF
whom it may be said, in the Language
of a classic song composed in the time
of NeIsonidis Seymourus, that French
ballet girls are in the shade when he
puts down his shoe. Desdemona, the
Yum Yum of the drama, was acted by
Miss ElOise MOlineaux.
The various episodes of the play
were watched with deepest interest by
the audience. When Othello a away
with DesdemOna, and stood up like q
little man before her irate papa, the
spectators hailed HIM with loud excla-
nations, and when he talked business
to q lot of disabled baseball catchers,
whomhe called senators, the audience
shouted with Joy. The efforts Of lago
to convince Othello that his twilight
colOred bride had shaken him for one
Cassie were watched with intense in
terest, and when Otheilo's counte-
nance was distorted with q fright
full, fearful frantic frown," and his
voice fell all the way down stairs from
high G to d fat below the bass cleft,
every one knew that there was a good
stout rod in pickle for Iago, and
cheered Othello to the echo. Suisse
quently when Othello seized Iago by
his little pigtail and drew his snicker-
snee, while Iago Topped down uponthe
unyielding pine boards and ''gurgled
and guggled," the applause rose to a
p@m of wild glee.
But it was in the final act of the trag-
edy that Othello woke up the fullest
sense of the situation and demon
strated that he was boss in his own
house. He grabbed Desdemona by her
iiowingswitches and swept the splinters
OF the stage with her. He jerked her
from l.. U. E. to r. j. E., across the
stage and down the middle. He scat
tered the English language in about
300 parts of speech all around her,
and though she moved earnestly for
a new trial he gave her to understand
IN plain words that the jigwas up and
that she had to seek a field of useful
ness in another and better world. He
then proceeded to stuff a boarding
house pillow down her throat and sit
on 1T, whereupon Desdemona, knowing
when she had enough of a good thing,
curled up in a heap and died. Then
Emilia, im~personated by Miss Belle
Martin, in a black dress with brass
buttons down the front, gave away
the deal which her husband had made,
and Othello awoke to a consciousness
that his friend was a bunco steerer or
the lowest type. So he once more drew
MS snickersnee and proceeded to per-
form the difficult, not to say danger
Gus, operation of self-decapitation.
Inc audience rose and departed. The
spectators evidently had no great de-
sire to behold any manslaughter, as
they had seen womanslaughter suf-
nclently widespread to last them for
several months.