The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-11-12
MIMIC TORTURE IN PLAYS.
THE CHRIsTIAN Bof'S AGoSIES IN
LITTLE NIGN or I'LL CROSN.Ik

tai Terror Make the Audience SILVER
"A whipped Hero and IA Maitrentod
Heroine In IA Bowery Meiodrnmn.
The best character in "ThO Sign of the Cross"
because the most appealinEly human. is that OF
. Christian boy, who submits to torture and
death for his religions sake. It is true that the
heroine is more conspicuously put forward as q
martyr, but she Is 80 unwavering In her resolu-
tion, so untiinching in her courage, so sanity in
her devotion TO Christianity, that her fate seems
moro glorious than pitiful. But the boyish
victim OF Nero's cruelty Is altogether natural
and earthly. The example of his compan-
ions inspires him. aud he desires TO be as
true to the faith as they are. but when the test
comes his power of endurance fails. Mr.. Bar
rett's play is so badly written that many of the
effects which he strains at are lost. but in this one
role he has done well, and the acting of 1t by Miss
Boswell is admirable. The boy is commanded to
divulgo the meeting place and the names of
Christians In Rome. lie refuses. A stalwart
TALLER is ordered to whip him. The heavy lash
is welded s%avagely. He falls aud writhes in
pain. He pleads for mercy. Again and again
he Is struck. The spectators, forgetting that II
IL only p~retence. break out into calculations Of
pity. The pain makes him tell where the
secret worshippers are to meet, but, instantly
Iegrettine, his betrayal Of them, no will not
him put on the, rack in an adjoining room,
and he is dragged out. The men who are left in
war oCtllc itkln W HlSCNSs IL uTNltT OI ENtTOt 10
extermlnate the Christians. Suddenly II shrek
OF anguish comes from the torture chamber. a
Shrek so dreadful that the audience is Mortified.
then another. aid after a moment the boy Is
brought back, limp and insensi6le. or course.
this recalls n similar incident in Sardou's " La
i'osca." wherea cleverer, playwright sends his
hero out to be tortured while the heroine is kept
In sight. the mclodramatlc intention being to
let the people see her mental sutlerinrs whilo
hearing his groans. That was more ingenious,
Snrsly; and ) yer the effect in the Barrett piece is
tress who plays the boy is very ~skilfully real
hero and heroine depart with other Christian
martyrs, to the arena. to be torn and devoured
sympathy. All eyes ara wide open. but dry to
all OF 1t. because 1t has an aspect of unreality,
and then the tears how. He starts toward
the awful sacrifice. but retreats from the
the lions. That Is human, pitifui, aud reaches
20 the heart. When. inspired anew by the
cross. he goes forth to die, it is he more than
all the rest who makes the women weep and tho
men blink hard.
When q villain abducts a heroine In a Bowery
theatre it no longer suflces for him to seize her
by the wrists, swing her first to one side and
then to the other, and finally back toward a lair
in the wings. There must be more " ginger"in
the incident. the evidence of struggle and blows
must be more convincing. and, to be really
winning, the heroine should have her turn at
the top of the heap. THE Nihilists " developed
at the Peoples ono extremely strenuous meet
ing between villain and heroine. who were man
and wife unsocially inclined. He. in a good suit
of dark mixture. demanded exit up stage; she.
In rags and limelight, volunteered to prevent his
escape. He was broad. she was slender; to right
was q table. TO left a stuffed chair. With q much
more persuasive hold than Il grip of wrists he
dragged her. diagonally across the stage and
aversion to that particular chair or preferred
TO stand; and showed 1t SO plainly that. she
lay there. The way in WHICH She was then
pressed down into the chair was unmistak ably
two struGgied Violently SG across Sas the fee'' stage ah TO tbs
table. From the bosom of her dress, which had
airsady hidden papers and a key that were Inn
pected 4 with the Villains ,wishbone. when
the tabin and secured the weapon. Then
she took his wrist in her teeth and
her prone; he striking her repeatedly with his
talked for two minutes. these two were almost
breathless when their turns came to speak. Al
and they Missed the villain on sight thereafter.
but down stairs there was - divergence OF opin-
ion. At the moment when the chair springs
were complaining loudest one young woman In
the front Of a lower box was busy wip!ng away
tsered the andible encouragement, "'S't. boy!
Shake 'er up!'
The hero's hard luck placed him In one scene
between two jailers armed with knouts and
under paw to either kill their prisoner or TO
drive HIM insane in short order. With face
pailid and shirt front tremendously low cut the
hero pleaded. while his captors belabored HIM.
dignation from up stairs that was music to the
authors ears. but the thrasning was continued,
and its effectiveness decreased with every blow
after the first ten. After a moment OF rest,
during which the prisoner begged for mercy.
the Jailers took again to their knOuts. laying on
blows alternately. their anxiety not TO really
hurt their " star " leading them into a regular
swing that suggested two men hammering a
hFiIN lknf worst nf oil for thnl ra,ra In
tentions the dust flew iii a thick cloud was
four feet above the stage. That brought
quarrytng and house cleaning were so far from
that Russian prison that The various Impressions
would not blend into soul-st!rrlng conviction.
The reporters whose duty It is to look over
the visiting celebrities never had n harder job
than the one prepared for them last night at
the Olympia. Then. for the first time, the
Cherry sisters were revealed to the gaze OF q
few hardened Veterans. This was preliminary
to their public divulgence on next Monday
night, when a larger number will be called
upon to face these enterprising Western
artists. II is difficult to tell from last
nights experiment just how New York
will stand the shock. But whatever the
result may be, the shock will be n severe one.
Such a collection was never before revealed to
New York. Oscar Hammerstein stood down in
the lobby Of the theatre with his hands in front
vi MS = lDsh you ever, Ib hSkcu Win
emotion. as each person retired after having
inspected the quartet. Did sou ever see any
thing like it:' Everybody admitted that the
like OF the four had never been seen.
Jessie, Lizzie. Adlie. and Ellie were tho only
members OF the famous family visible in the
private office up stairs. Ella is at home on the
fruit farm near Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Others
looked as though they ought to have been there
too. None of them is beautiful and only one of
the four is very young. But all OF them were
Indignant over the reports of their performance
which had preceded them to New York.
They do scandalIze us so,'' said Miss Jessie.
who bad on a green dress with n turban of the
same color and n limp red feather falling CO. |
uuettishly over her left cheek. They tell such
libels about US. The idea Of saving we travel |
behind u net TO keep people from throwing |
things at us. They said that about us in Lowry, /
and | wrote to the paper and made EN- take it
back"
The Cherry sisters are natives of a small town
In InyVu They nprilnl IN tala 4 N "a. , 49,. Ia |