The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1898-11-11

Magda, the opening play of what
one hopes will be an auspicious sea-
son, gives great opportunities for the
best of acting. 1t is written by
master of his craft, and in spite of its
being translation, it loses none of
its original fire, sarcasm and realism.
The playwright in Magda has taken
for his ~ anre the impossibility of the
artistic spirit and the conventional
| spirit living together. 1t is the old
story of oil and water not mixing Be
ing a realist, Sudermann makes no eff
fort to give solution of the difficulty
He merely gives a picture of actual
life, shows that these contrasts occur,
shows that they can occur even in the
| same family, and then leaves you to
draw your own conclusions. There
were lessons, and deep lessons, to be
learned from the lines, if any one
cared to draw them.
The main interest of the play rests
upon three characters. Magda Miss
| Nance O'NeiD, Colonel Schwartze (Mc-
Kee Kankin), and Pastor Hetfterdingt
| (Herbert CARR. In handling the
character of Magda, the daughter who
| left her home, went into the world of
Bohemia, erred and then won her way
| to fame and fortune by her talents,
| Miss O'Neil showed herself an emo
| tional actress of the first rank She
does not act her character, she lives it
on the stage before you. Talking over
what Miss O'Neil's qualifications were
with another old play goer, he sug-
| gested that she was modelled on the
| lines of Jeffreys Lewis and Fanny Da-
venport. 1t may be so, but she more
strongly reminded me of Isabella Ba-
terman and Madame Celeste.
Miss O'Neil has n fine presence and
n beautifully modulated voice, which
can come forth in rolling periods and
die away in soft cooling notes. She is
extremely graceful and her actions on
the stage appear as unstudied as in
real life: in this lies the true genius
of the actress. Not word that she
says is lost upon the ears of the au-
dience, and would that one could say
that of all players. There are so
many who gabble their words so that
a very lynx could not hear, and from
these the present company is not eN-
empt.
With her beauty, her gracefulness,
| lltG lIut uIllSllC llSlluCl, WHICH mas
been most admirably cultivated, Miss
O'Neil has great career before her
She is young, very young, but youth
i'm an actress is ever charm. But
Miss O'Nei's genius does not depend
upon youth, and she bids fair to ranl
with those actresses or singers who
have defed time, like Ellen Terry
Sara Bernhardt and Adelina Patti.
Mckee Rankin is an actor of the
good old school. 1t is a pleasure tC
see him on the stage and to see how
thoroughly he enters into his charact
er. There are very few of these old
thorOugh-gOing actors left. You FIND
them more i'm Germany and in the pro
vincial towns of England and Scotland
than YOU do in the States. The farce
comedy and the song and dance rub
bish like the Gaety Girl, and the doz
en- other girls" that followed it. have
prevented actors from getting an op
portunity to work on the old lines. Al
the Colonel. Rankin portrayed The
narrow minded. religious, honorable
old soldier to the life. Passage afteI
passage might he quoted hut doub
If any finer bit of acting could h,
shown than when he saws to Council
Tor Won Keller. the seducer of hi
daughter, 81 do not know that yol
have any right to a seat in this house
hut since you say that you have COM
hastily Mt my summons, Won must h
tired-Be seated" There was th,
mixture of the indignant manhood AM
the studied politeness of the thorough