The evening world., 1895-09-04
Gle COLLIER DE LA RENE"

The American dramatist will laugh
and grow fat and healthy in sheer Joy.
Here's the terrible Decourcelie 1--WE
heard that II was quite impossible to
keep him quleO simply playing into the
hands of that discouraged person, and
doing it ostentatiously, too. After 'The
City of Pleasure" one was prepared for
the worst, but "Lc Collier de la Refine"
produced magniiicently at Days Thea
tre last night, is-between you and me
worse than the worst, because 1t Is
deadly dull. And the Irritating part
about 1t Is that 1t Is not trashy. and it
Undoubtedly has literary merit, while
1t has been cleanly Englished by c. II.
Meltzer. In spite of which facts 1t is
as heavy as dough. Scene succeeds
scene. and you sit there in opaque
silence wishing for anything on earth.
You listen to courtly, polished speeches.,
you see pictures-charming pictures-of
the Marie Antoinette days, but you
wait-you wait--you wait. The thrill
will surely come, you tell yourself. You
will either laugh. or cry, or gurgle. or
grin. Darkness then and nothing more.
You feel that you are a Mariana in a
| =
II had to take a second dose of either
THE City Of Pleasure" or lie Collier
de la Refine" should prefer the former.
I really should. At any rate. 1t moves
you to mirth. The "Reine's Collier in
spires you with a keen longing to knock
your head against stone wall.
1t is In five acts and eleven scenes. 1t
Is also in 1854. The human interest" Is
supplied by a diamond necklace, sup
posed to have cost 100000 livres. The
Queen IL in love with this necklace. and
exclaims at intervals of five minutes.
in stately. etiquette-injected tones.
"How beautiful" She varies this occa-
sionally with, Isn't 1t beautiful?" But
she Is proper about her admiration. and
SO meek that you feel-even though she
Is a queen-that you could forgive her
II she would exclalm, ''Hully jee"'
Cardinal de Rohan, who is very willy
(only willy cardinals are used for stage
purposes). gives Marie Antoinette the
necklace In order to win her favor She
had declined to buy it because she
thought that she could spend the none y
more advantageously in ships. The
Cardinal loves her, and somebody loves
him. And this somebody is jealous. sc
she compromises the Queen by means
OF Olivia. young woman who looks sc
much like her that the two can scarcely
be distinguished apart. The Queens
name suffers, and even the Cardina
believes that he has really met her
: He Is arrested just as he Is going tt
celebrate mass, and later on Marie An
toinette's name Is cleared. The mate
rial used In the play, you will thus see
might have made a singularly interest
ing drama, but Decourcele has oh
scured 1t by petty irrelevancies. and by
the time that the point is reached II M
longer possesses any interest. Like
cat with a rat. Decourcelle has playe,
with this drama until 1t died from ex
: haustion.
l don't wonder that Mr.. DAILY mad
: such a point OF the clothes used in IL.
Collier de la Refine" They are lovely
Mrs. Potter was simply a dream o
beauty-moro distlngue, more plquant
and more attractive than ever But sh
was really dreadfully bad from a dram
attic point OF view. Her pulpit deliver.
was absurdly out Of place. She dis
torted her sentences. jerked forth tn
= most commonplace phrases In a peril
= ously ridiculous way, and declined t
vary the perpetual sing-sing monoton
or her voice. Besides her acting lacke
the touch OF nature that the new an
the desirable school demands. Her re
deeming quality was her earnestnes.
Her beauty. OF course, she cannot hel,
ID and to her credit be It said, she neve
attempts to emphasize II by clap-tra
devices. She Is an odd woman, is Mr..