The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-02-18
CRINKLE CRITICISES
Sarah Reinhardt's Performance
of Cleopatra
1T IS A GORGEOUS SPECTACLE
The Realism Of Live Serpent Condemned
Triumph of Detail as Well
as of Ensemble

Especial to THE HERALD-Examiner Dispatch.1
New YORK, Feb. 17.-Here is Nym'
Crinkle's description of Sarah Bernhardt's,
Cleopatra
Mime. Bernhardt's Cleopatra was
presented last night at the Garden theatre.1
The much praised play Is half spectacle
and half melodrama with suggestion OF
tragedy. Nothing in La Tosca compares
with 1t for stunningness Or oriental color
One can detect with the eye more of Sardoui
than of Moreau in its magnificent tableau1
and tropic pictures. 1t may be indeed said
1t was written in tableaux under an cleo
trio light. its color intoxicates, its pompi
OF motion, intensity of passion, bewilders.
II is pageant in which realism has reached
its ultimate limit of material and arrange
ment 1 cen readily understand that
Moreau's drama, when submitted to the
Bernhardt, lacked something. 1t lackedl
Sardou, aud that master flung in the masses
OF color, pictorial episodes and devices, for
| agitating the spectators nerves. 1t does
not follow Shakespeare except in one cpl
| sode, and in its disposition of incidents is as
unlike the Elizaoethan drama as
! Victor Hugo's Hermann is unliks
| 'Phadre.' 1t is Invested of the
poetic life. 1t appeals directly to the sense
and leaves nothing to the reflective faculty.
III moves per sdltttm IN masses beginning
| with superb pageant-the arrival of Cleo
patra's Darge-and ending with realistic
cartoon in which the actress shares her
talents with the fascination of live SER
| pant.
In hec portugal of the Egyptian queen,
Mime. Bernhardt has full swing for the
saJyo rs0i-e Nf baT vie oI
ents no less than for an exhibition Of SEN
suous, voluptuous, capricious and almost
lnsanely vain woman. Kept down to these
qualities it would be difficult to name
another stage creature Of our era so vivid,
so tremUlous, so fascinating, so fierce, so
irresistible to the sense.
In the quarrel scene of the fourth act,
which is the most forceful in the play,
Nine. Bernhardt rises to the full height OF
her powers. But there succeeds it the
scene of self destruction in which the
actress, as if conscious of the limitations of
her own power and DESTROYS only of pro-
ducing sensation, resorts to the utterly
unworthy device of using a live
, serpent. Nothing that the great actress
ever did here or elsewhere so conclusively
stamped her with sensationalism as
this. To use property serpent
) would be safe and not detract from
/ the actress expression of purpose
, and pain. 10 use real asp IS 70 comm and
a new thrill, Deretricious but unmistalz-
able. 1t is quite true the death scene, ad-
: mirable as it is, was not sufficient to draw
1 attention from the wriggling viper. But
: realism sdds to the sum total of the sensa-
d ton. 1t must be said, too, there are great
stretches of what Matthew Arnold would
a call mot action" in which the exhibiting
r artist reclines and exhibits, dreamy inter
regnums of odalisquerie, so to speak, in
S which you can almost smell the mummy
scented air of the crypt, hot, balsamic anC
1 quivering under the tropical sun. Here
r the eye sinks into a swoon. One is content
i to look at the swathed body of this strange
q creature wrapped, not dressed, in hlmy
d folds, 1.-THE, hipless, serpentine body witt
{ that same jewelled belt wrought far dow
@ upon the abdomen, with a tawny sugges
g ton of the jungle in a bit of tiger skin, anC
g small, scintillant eyes that CLEAN not unlike
: the lidless diamonds in the head Of crotGlu
hOrridus. Strangely suggestive OF the dead
n mysterious forces of nature is this combina
o ton of voluptuousness and venom.
Q ''There were several moments last nigh
: when the Bernhard swept her audienc
with the rapid stimulation of stormy emo
e ton. 1t can hardly be said she ever for q
% instant lost sight Of the smallest detail @
: effect, whether it was in her wraps or i
e her face. The scene with the meSsenge
e and the quarrel with Antony are studio
L of particulars as well as triumphs Of en-
| Gern hla ~