Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-08
THE DANCING GIRL.
Sothern's New Play Rather Long, but
Interesting and Well Acted.
MISS PAGET IN DALY'S LAST WORD.
Bright Novelty Of Eight Bells-Shenandoah
"A Good Farce.
ALL THE PLAYS IN TOWN CRITICISED

ALL THE PLAYS In TOWN CRITICISED
A new play of some pretensions was put
on at the Alvin Theater last night. 1t was
"The Dancing Girl" by Henry Arthur
Jones, which has impressed London and
New York favorably. Last night nothing
was so impressive about the play as its
length. 1t was not over till 11:3O, and the
waits between acts were abnormally
long. Yet with all its faults
the play interested the audience enough to
keep them in their seats, with very few e1-
| ceptions, till the end. An explanation of
the ungodly duration of the play is offered,
to the effect that the stage hands had great
| difficulty in setting the scenery, some of
which is very heavy. 1t is also promised
that these delays will not occur again, and
that the audience therefore, need not bring
cots or robes de mutt with them. Still, as it
is upon last nights performance that the
following remarks are made, it is well to
premise that the play may be q good
deal better than we now think, for its
progress last night was comparable only to
tlldb ol du Observation-Disclosures tIdlu III u "a
district.
''The Dancing Girl" has one good quality
for certain; it has clear, well-connected
story. The plot is not new to any alarming
extent, except in so far as character and
local color are concerned. Perhaps the best
way will be to look at the story first.
Drusald les is the dancing girl, and also the
quiet daughter of some Cornish Quakers.
She is first seen in her character OF
demure Quakeress in the little island
of ST. Endellion. There also we
are introduced to his grace, the
Duke Of Gaisebmy, who is the patron of
D'~silla, in her character Of premiere dan
seuse in London.
Tho Story of the Play.
D,usi7a is loved in supremely respecta-
BILE way by monstrously goody y-goody fisher
man named John C1tristisof,, who only knows
his charmer as a hardworking honest girl.
The first act of the play is all talk, and
merely explains who is who, and allows
Dyusila to ask the Duke to marry her
which he refuses to do - and to shock
holy John C1uistison by dancing few very in
Eocuous steps in the moonlight. The curtain
falls on this episode, John exclaiming melo-
dramatically: "Woman! What art thou?"
In act II the empty frivolity of the Dukes |
life with DrusiQd is exhibited, and with such |
amplitude and exactness that the audience
grows in sympathy first with the Duke, and |
secondly with Drpsila. An episode which
is meant to be pathetic and is only ridicu- |
with his love for DrusiHa He wants to |
leave that charming creature, but |
finds it hard to do it. Finally, |
with great shout, he tears himself |
away. BY the way isn't the Duke delight |
fully free from jealousy, and how consider |
ate it is of him to allow pious John, who is a |
hearty lad known to be in love with D,7e-
silld, to have the run of his mistress villa |
at Richmond! Well, the yawning and |
cursing of fate eliminate in a declaration
from the Duke that he will take one final |
his brains out-for Drusila declines to marry |
him, seeing that he is a ruined man, and he |
has no other object in life. The
expiring kick takes the form |
of a big reception, at which DraGsiNd dances,
at the DUKES house. Thither goes DrusiNa's |
father, Quaker of clerical mien, and attire |
worthy of q bishop Papa ICES is slow
coach, bus he has at last tumbled to Miss |
Drusi1la's naughtiness. He sees her coming
from her triuhphs with the light fantastic
and he proceeds to curse her in good old
old man with his daughter before he
delivers this terrific anathema is pathetic
but there is too much of il.
The Final Climax.
When D,7ssiua and her father have gone
their several ways and all the guests are
scattered, the DuEe of Guisebary raises vial
of poison to his lips and-the crippled girl
whose life he had saved comes downstairs
on her crutches and stays his hand. Here
is the climax of the play. It is against |
probability; and to make it worse the last
act is all tame and polite conventionality.
D77sslla dies, out of the audiences sight; the
Duke reforms and marries the crippled
maiden, who has reached the cane stage,
after painful passage through three acts on
crutches and John CHristison also marries
second choice. The fishermen who had gone
to the North Pole, for no very clear reason
come back without 1.-THE pole-as usual in
the last act also; and everybody is disimally
and deeply joyous.
The fishermen of the Scilly Islands are
unlike any mariners we have ever known;
and Mr. Jones, the author, is mainly re-
sponsible for this, for he puts long sermons
IN beautiful dictionary English into John
CHristison's mouth, and makes all the folk
who live in the fishers cottages at st. En-
dellion talk like Sunday school boys COM
are overdrawn, and it constantly strikes one
that in life the other thing would have hap
pened.
Mr.. f. HI. Sothern is the Duke
Of Gssisebauy, serious undertaking
for this talented young actor who
has kept close to comedy heretofore
how difficult the dramatst has
made it for the Duke to seem human at times.
Mr.. Sothern's creation of this character
must be considered very clever. The Duke
is always gentleman; a wornout blase man
of the world whose love for Drusilla is the
only warm sign of life in him. Mr.. Soth-
ern contrives to invest the Duke with that
repose of high caste that is found in some
members of the House of Lords.
1t is not very sympathetic charac-
ter; but its cynicism is ENJOYABLE
Mr.. Sothern deserved the applause he
received. Miss Virginia Harmed as Drussina
was equally satisfactory, and with less lim-
itation at the authors hands.
A Very Sweet Quakeress.
She made the physical charm OF the light
woman very apparent, and in the minor op-
portunities in the early half of the play was
very graceful and true to the phase of
nature she typifed. When Dra,ssilla re-
ceives her fathers curse she faints, and
Miss Harmed acted this scene with such re-
~, blo ,,oror fbof che axhouStad bo, |