Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1889-04-08
Mrs. Potter az Cleopatra.

A letter from Washington 10 tho K ch.
mond Times says Mrs. James Brown Pot.
ter has been the sensation of the week AS
an actress she has created as much conster
nation in the dramatic field as Amelie Rives
has in the field of errstic literature Her
role was that of Cleopatra Her appearance
here was of peculiar interest to Washington
society, from the fact that to Mrs Secretary
Whitney Is due the credit (if there is any
credit in it, of dlsco eripg her in the reading
of "Ostler Joe" at her residence two winters
ago The subject of her reading at that
time set society sfre and first called public
attention to Mrs Potter. She was woman
rather fair to look upon, stage struck, and
fond of notoriety, and Immediately became
imbued with the Idea that great future
lay before her. Washington society was
therefore on the qui viVe to witness her
much-talked of rendition of the Queen of
the Nile, As spectacular drama
it must be admitted that the play was
great success. The magnifcence of
Rome, the blue Italian sky, the Par
thenon, the watonnesa and abandon
of the Egyptian civilization, the gorgeous
fascination Of the indolent love breathing
court of Cleopatra, which had degraded kings
and had drawn into the whirlpool of ruin
one who might have been the master of
the world-in ell this the play was sue.
cess. But Mrs. Potter, ss the voluptuous,
pulsing, hungry, Isian Nile beauty was a
complete and total failure. In the scene in
which she first made her appearance sailing
down the Nile, lying back in her voluptu.
ously cushioned gondola, famed by great
ostrich feathers, entertained with the either
and the bandolne, the audience was In the
height pectation-thegr great depouement
was about to take. The woman who had
dared to defy public opinion and make the
drama intensely realistic was about to ap-
pear 10 this ecene, however, Mrs. Potter's
ideas were peculiarly her own. She did not
come down the Nile, as Cleopatra did, nine.
teen centuries ago, beautiful only in the
charms which nature had given her, but
she glittered with diamonds and precious
jewels her body was eDcssed in the scaly
armour of the serpent of the Nile, and her
limbs were shrouded in daphanous mate
rial, which attracted, because it only half
revealed and half concealed the charms be.
meath. The audience heayed sign of re-
lief, she was not as bad as she had been
painted, and really there seemed TO be q
tinge OF disappointment. Then Mrs. Potter
began to act. She has no more defamation
than school girl, and it is supplemented by
an angularity of body which no more sue-
gests the ideal Oriental beauty than the
msniken suggests the man. She is so awk
ward that she would fall down standing
still. The audience grew restless and await.
ed with impatience, when she was to make
her revelations above the belt. The crisis
came. Mrs. Potter heroically barred her
bosom to give the asp chance but alas, no
immcdesty of dress could render Mrs. Pot.
ter voluptuous 10 the sense that Cleopatra
was. When the play WAS over the audience
dispersed, feeling that realism on the stage
was not success. especially with Mrs. Pot
ter la the principal role.