St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-02
A GREAT PERFORMANCE.
THE KENGALS FULLY UP TO SEsPAUL
EXPECTATIONS. ''-,'
.HmosmAsrER. DESCRIBED.

First appearances OF Mr. and Mrs.
Kendall, the Noted English
Actors = They Are Supported
by a strong Company = The
Bill Tonight Is "rhe second
Mrs, Tanqueray."
England has indeed produced great
actors. To her we are indebted for the
pleasure of having seen such man as
Mr.. Willard, to have witnessed the Won
| derful acting of the great Henry Irving,
and now last, but not least, the Kendals
/ have come. They whose reputation III
the old country is second to none but
| lrving's.
The play presented last night was
The lronmaster," a decentralization by
| Pinero of George Ohnet's novel of the
same name.
The story is one of great strength
and quite as much can be said OF the
| play, The plot is not very intricate.
| The action of the piece is as follows:
| Claire de Beaupre and uis cousin, Due
| de Bligney, are engaged to be mar
| rled, when news is received by
De Bligney that the fortune
OF his betrothed has been LOST.
Money being absolutely Indispensable
to the duo, he resolves to break the en-
gagement and at the same time form an
alliance with AthenaiSs, the daughter
OF rich burgner. Instead of going to
Clare In person to announ his in-
tended step, AthenaiSS Is allowed this
pleasant duty; and she, Womanlike,
gloating over the downfall of her rival.
tells her little story with secret pleas
ure she can only partially conceal!
Claire Ill her extremity now turns to
Philippe Derblay, the rich ironmaster,
who, through her mother. has offered
his hand. At another time, when only
her heart was concerned, this offer
would have been rejected; but now, with
the fear of what the world will say, and
even greater than this, her family pride,
she yields, and when the Due de Bill
gney comes with the intention of nak-
ing DrOfuSe excuses for his cowartffy
conduct he Is foretalled by Claire, who
Introduces Derblay to him as her future
husband.
The curtain rises for the second time,
and Claire is found awaiting the arrival
of Philippe Derbfay, new her liege
lord. Knowing little or nothing of HIM
self personally, and despislng his call
ing, when he enters with all the antici-
patton of a lover he is cruelty repulsed,
his protfered kiss rejected, and his ard0r
cooled by tine tears OF his bride.
Although Philippe has long known
that his wife would be dowerless, yet
she is quite ignorant of that
consent to separation and to take
her fortune. Stung to rage by this at
tribution Of a mercenary motive to his
action, he does not try to defend him-
self, but consents to practical, though
5iIot legal, separation, saying, as he does
So that some: day. when she does love
him, she will find him as hard as she
has been.
The next act reveals what is to be eX-
pected. Claire discovers that she was
taken dowerless. learns not only to
love her husband. but also that she is
jealous of him. E-St,si'&3
Now it is his time, and, taking adyan-
tage of it. he repulses her overtures OF
affection, pretending at the same, time
to pay attention to the Due de BiigneY's
wife, AthenaisS. Claire cannot stand
| this state of affairs, and in her rage
orders Mme.f dc Biigney out or the
house. Derblay refuses to apologize for
| this action of his wife, and consequent
| ly is challenged to fight a duel by the
! due.
| oil tho fyOuhin no
! Claire goes to her husband and begS him
to give up the intended fight. AT the
same time she admits her love for him,
but he is not to be dissuaded from his
purpose anu leaves her, as she thinks, to
| go to certain death. Overcome by re-
| morse aud fearing the worSt.she follows
! him, and at the signal to fire ruSheS
| between the two combatantS. receiving
the shot intended for her husband. The
wound is not fatal, nor even dangerous,
and the curtain falls as Philippe takes
his wife in his arms and kisses her i'll
| forgiveness.
Nothing but praise can be bestowed
| Old Mr.. and Mrs. Kendall for their studied
acting in this piece. From the very
rise of the curtain until it's final drop
there was not single hitch or flaw in
the acting of any member of the COM
pany. One of the particularly strong
scenes of the play is the last part OF the
first act, when Claire. Mrs. Kendall, is
told of her lovers perfidy. In this,
as in all other parts or the play, there is
no loud ranting, but everything is done
in such an extremely natural manner
that the audience indeed lives over
with those OH the stage the parts repre-
scented.
There are several strong situations in
the drama, atfording plentiful oppor-
lunItieS for fine acting.
A very noticeable moisture about the
eyes of the audience, and toe sneaking
desire to hide this evidence of apprecia-
ton, was the we'll merited reward of an
especially fine piece of work Oh the
part Of Mr.. and Mrs. Kendall.
AS the Indispensable young lovers,
Miss Nellie Campbell and Philip Gun
ningham were we'll received. J. E.
Dodsor, as the parvenu of the cast,
took his part in all excellent manner.
LII tact. all of the troupe are as much
better than the average company as
Mr.. and Mrs. Kendall excel the regular
run of leading actors.