Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-03
In A MODERN MATCH
The Pitou Stock Company Begins
the Week at the Duquesne.
MISS SELIGMAN'S SUPERB WORK,
Boys and Girls, After Dark and Superba
Amuse Large Audiences.
ALL THE PLAYS IN TOWN CRITICISED


ern Match" and the actors who played il
last night at the Duquesne Theater, it i:
only right to state that the public owes 6
great deal to Augustus Pitou for giving
them such body of actors as his stock com.
psny. 1t is positively audacious, admira,
bic no doubt also, in a manager to
take such risks and to invest
SO much money as Mr.. Pitou
has done in organizing this company. The
common theatrical translation of the term
stock company, namely an organization in
which there are nett her sticks nor stars, fits
this case exactly, for apparently every
member of Mr.. Piton's company is an artist
and though there are degrees of talent OF
course, their ability and training are such as
to weld them into an homogeneous whole. A
regular stock company, stationary and
metropolitan, such as Mr.. Palmer
sent here last season is the only
body to which Mr.. Pitou' S travelling company
can be compared, and, in some respects, the
latter would have the best of the compari-
son.
"a Modern Match" is four-ac society
drama by CLYDE Fitch, who wrote "Beau
Brummei' for Richard Mansfield, and had
terrible time proving that that eccentric
genius did not write it for him, Mr. Fitch
In this effort Mr.. Fitch does not prove that
he can write great play, but he shows more
than enough talent to have written beau
Brummel" The blemishes of "a Modern
Match" are many, and range from the
mistake of making fragrant breach of the
seventh commandment the motive of the
play to mere clumsy construction, and the
use of antique phrases-commonly called
r-orS h, oh III aotiao of 4ba ,,1o,- :,
impeded or turned astray, and the effective
ness of naturally powerful situation is
lost. But there are
In a Modern Match
enough glimpses of human nature to have
redeemed far worse play. The story is
interesting, and the climax of act is won
derfuily thrilling.
Here's the story in brief: Fiolet Rs-,t is
beautiful woman, a cold, selfish beauty in
whom the animal is uppermost. Her hus-
band, wealthy merchant, fails in business
and on the eve of this disaster receives
positive information of his wife's reckless
Irritation with butterfly millionaire. He
taxes her with covering this intrigue with
lies, and they quarrel. She leaves the
house, but upon consultation with her
mother-s hard, selfish matron of type
very rare if not mpossibe-returrs. Hear
ing from her husbands lips that she
must really give up her luxurieS, her
diamonds and even her maid, and begin life
with him again. TiotF lifts another edge of
her mask and prepares to abandon him.
Step by step her husband dogs her and tries
10 reclaim her, for their daughters sake.
But the climax comes when her husbands s
bankrupt partner having blown his brains
out, she prepares TO fly with her wealthy
paramour. Her husband enters while she is
still in her lovers arms, knocks the latter
down and drives FioEd from the house.
Then II years elapse. Fiold has gone to
the 'demnition bow-wows" via st. Peters
burg, and her husband is preparing
70 marry again, this time to the
killed himself in act 8. 1t is his
daughters wedding day. Suddenly a
loudly-dressed female, of brassy beauty, in
trGdes upon the wedding march and the un- |
happy Robert Hant recognizes in her his |
exilcd Violet. She tries the pathetic and |
several other lodges upon him without sue
cess, and willis before lawyer who appears
with the timely news that he has just Sc
cured evidence-which he might have
tore-bv which Mr. HINT can be
freed from Violet for ever She
laughs cynically and disappears; the
orchestra resumes the wedding march, every
one on hand pairs Off and the curtain de-
scends
The play is wanting in probability: the
characters are nearly all exaggerated in
some particular, and there is
A Flavor That is Not American,
at least not as the poor provincial Judges |
things-and not pleasant. The character OF |
Tiolet is drawn with boldness and consider |
able truth. Its keynote is found in her |
answer to her husbands appeal to her: |
f'Have you no soul?" She replies: 81 |
don't know what YOU mean by soul!'' That's |
exactly it. She has no thought above pres /
ent pleasure; her ideals are all within the |
reach of fat purse. Without money life's |
not worth living to her. In this unusual |
character Miss Minnie Seligman established |
last night beyond all question her title of |
artist. She was lazily and grossly CON-
placent through the earlier scenes. Appar-
emily she WIS a woman whose charms were
physical only, and the gorgeousness of her
dress and jewels somehow harmonized with
the line of her figure, the full req lips and
the smile which showed her lcvelv
teeth. The passions of this sorry
creature were brought out with fearful force
in the climax of the third act. Her anxiety
to escape from the ruined husband, to aban-
don virtue when If meant poverty: her fear
d
the guilty man, and the contention of these
feelings, were all mirrored in the contorted
face, the hurried stihed speech, and the
nervous motions of this remarkable actress |
When the shock of the climax came she was
equal to il. The horror of her flight from
her wronged husbands presence was real
and intense. The audience rightly recalled
her at this point, but surely it was poor
taste in Mr.. Backus to share that recall
In the last act Miss Seligman PLAYED the
degraded adventures with wonderful skill.
There is nothing on the stage SO hard TO
simulate as dissimulation. You saw that
Iiolet's tears were crocodile's, that her pit
eous appeal to be forgiven was trick, but
you felt yourself wondering whether the
pretense would be discovered The upshot
was in doubt till she left the room. Miss
SelIgman hasa very rare faculty in his
trionic art that is bound to bring her to
grander triumphs. Her personal charms
are subsidiary, although they are great.
HIs Well Acted Throughout.
The play was acted smoothly all through.
Mr.. Nelson Wheatcroft played the injured
husband with dignity and well-measured
force W. III. Thompson made a very small
part very large by few minutes acting.
He played the bankrupt, whose mind goes
with his money; and the picture he gave of
a morbidly nervous man verging upon sui
cidal mania was gruesomely true The
other characters in what may be termed the
tragic side of the play were slightly
sketched but admirably played.
All the comedy in the play is |
furnished by Miss Jene Stuart, Miss Vida
Croly little Annette Leland and George
w. Leslie. Miss Stuart shows us Just |
about the same American girl she did in
The Senator" with Crane last season, and |