Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-24
IN SARD0U'S 0DETTE
Clara Morris Gives Another Illustra-
ton of Her Emotional Powers.
FANNY RICE IN FARCE COMEDY.
Frank Daniels in Little Puck --- Charles
Gardner as Captain Karl.
ALL THE PLAYS IN TOWN CRITICISED

Miss Clara Morris appeared in "Odette, E"
play in four acts by Sardou, at the Alvin
Theater last night. Some people, and they
are not all Frenchmen, or they might be
pardoned, would have us believe that be-
cause Sardou writes play it must be work
of art, powerful drama and a model of con-
struction; that its dialogue is sparkling, and
that, IN short, it is thing apart, like play
of Shakespeare, before which critics should
bow and audiences courtesy in the most def
erential spirit. Well, those who have that
kind of feeling, are at liberty to work the
hinges of their knees double-turn before
"Odette," but it will not convince us that
it is not a very bad play-so bad play that
had it borne the name of anyone but the
author of 'La Tosca" it would never have
been accepted by Miss Morris. In the Or
iginal, perhaps, though it is doubtful, the
dialogue was sufficiently brilliant to redeem
the play from dullness. 1t is an ugly
play; French to the fnger-tips, so to
speak, and while the moral ostensibly
taught by it is good, yet the
life it pictures involves so much that is low
and vicious that the result cannot be edify-
ing. A glance at the story of the play will
be enough to show how dull and dismal, as
well as unpleasant, it is.
The Story of the Play.
Odette is the wife of French Count 1t
is hard to tell what kind of a wife she has
been before the play opens, but the first we
see of her is enough to show US that she is
tired of hum-drum domesticity in country
house. A young lover, who possesses the
key to secret passage way to her chamber,
uses it at the very moment her husband
Unexpectedly returns. Husband and
lover meet-there is struggle
friends separate them, and they part
to meet again on the field of honor While
the husband is preparing to upbraid his
wife she appears, and in the darkened
chamber-it was dark on the stage last
night, although the lamp continued alight-
is feeling her way to the secret staircase,
murmuring her anxiety for her lovers
safety, when she collides with her rightful
lord. Struggle number two, followed by
hot denunciation from the husband, and
very mild protest from the wife. He turns
her out of doors, having first sent away
their little daughter to place of safety.
That ends act 1. All of act II. is devoted
to the narration of all that happens to
Odetts in a vicious life of 10 years. One
footlights and take up the story, and as a
piece of dramatic construction this act is
about as weak as it could be. 1t
might be left out without anyone's miss
ing it. Act 8 shows Odette's last resort,
low gambling den in Nice. Hither her hus-
band comes to beg her to give up his name
and go away, in order to save their daugh-
ter from scandal on the eve of her marriage.
There is powerful and affecting scene at
this point, and one in which Miss Morris is
quite at home. The abandoned woman in a
measure consents upon condition that she
see her daughter The interview that fol-
lows between mother and daughter, the lat
ter ignorant entirely of the formers iden-
tity, is by far the best scene in the play, and
the nearest to nature. The result of the in
terview is that Odette consents to obliterate
herself, for the sake of the daughter, who
has passed sentence upon her.
So the play ends with a declamatory tag
that robs the situation which it ends of half
its pathos, and is an error that we can hard
ly believe Mr.. Sardou capable of making
Incidentally during the play we are intro
duced to number of malodorous creatures,
male and female, and to the interior of
'brace'' gambling saloon in Nice. The
audience probably failed to comprehend the
of much of the business, and
laughed good-humoredly at the exaggerated
paint upon the face of one of the elderly
syrens. The weakness of the play NAV be
imagined when it is considered that of four
acts only the first has strongly dramatic
situation; that there is no clearly marked
climax, and that one whole act is
devoted to recitations in place of
action. Not solitary character except Odette
betrays any original creative genius; the
ingenue is our old and ever welcome little
girl dying to be married; and the rest are
shadows, merely labeled differently but
practically alike Even Odette's husband
has no individuality to speak of.
Miss Morris as Odette.
Miss Clara Morris in the last two acts
showed some of her old power. In the
first act she was to stilted in her delivery;
she did not catch the inspiration of the
and her passion appeared me
her child gone especially lacked the gen.
uine ring. She benefited apparently by
her immunity from the drenching rain of
words in act II. and when she entered upon
the interview with the Count CIermont in
act I'LL her touch was bolder and
more magnetic Her expression of grief
and anger alternately in this scene was in
tensely moving; and the emotional triumphs
OF the last act, in the heart-breaking sac
rifce Odette makes for her daughter, was
quite in Miss Morris grand style. The
audience recognized all the brilliant work
of this great actress, and called her before
the curtain twice.
Mr. Colville played the Count with some
dignity and melodious pathos, but little
too stifly. The nearest approach to comedy
in the piece was furnished by Miss Abilene
who as the daughter of Odste dis
played girlish enthusiasm and archness
that were very refreshing. Miss Mittens
Willett made something of the conventional
young wife of an elderly man the French
dramatist loves to ridicule gently. Other
wise the company is not remarkable. The
play was given everything in the way of
scenery that could be asked, and one or two
of the interiors displayed richness and good
nS in fnrnitl1ra and colnrinor