The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1898-11-21
ARUNDEL WANTED DEMABM RUN RAMPANT SONS OF ERIN ORGANIZE HBD HBREA
POWERFUL ACTING AND GREAT
SKILL.
Nance O'Neil and Mckee Rankin Rem
der the Murder of Nancy Skies with
Exact Realism.

Thirty years or more have not
changed my opinion in the least. Oil
YER twist should never be presented
ON the stage. | can remember Toole
playing the Artful Dodger, and |
think Emery was the Fagln. have
forgotten who the Nancy Skies was,
but the main interest in the version
was centered upon the Dodger, since
Toole was starring in it, The intense
vulgarity of the play was more em-
phasized then. The intense brutality
was emphasized in the version given
last Saturday evening by Mckee Ran
kin and Nance O'Neil.
! must not, however. be misunder-
stood from the point of view of real
istic acting and great art. Three of
the players were thoroughly power
full and played their parts for all that
could be made out of them. But il is
the setting of the piece that | object
to. TO illustrate what ] mean there
was a certain school of Dutch paiut-
ers who delighted to paint the interi-
ors of butchers shops, and their skill
lay in the portrayal of carcases of
sheep and bullocks hanging ID, and
in painting meat on the block. The art
is undeniable, the skill of the painter
is undeniable but it is not the kind of
cheerful thing one would hang up in
ones dining room to give one an APP
petite. The subject was unpleasant,
and the treatment too real.
This is the trouble with the present
version or in fact of any version of
Oliver Twist. Reading the book one
hardly realizes its responsiveness, but
put the characters upon the stage and
they strike you at once as low, disrep-
utable, detestable. Oh, yes, there is "a
moral, for vice gets punished and vir-
tue triumphs in the end, but the pic
ture of srch brutality and degradation
is not elcvating, however good the
moral may be.
But if we consider the three princi-
pal players, one can only give praise
for their work Nance O'Neil made "A
strong Nancy Skies, and showed both
pathus. devil-my y-carishness, and real
istic actiog in the extreme. The char
acter has so little TO redeem its depths
of degradation. She does try to do
something to save Oliver, and she has
something of dogs faithfulness and
| love for the brute Skies. This she por-
trays admirably. There is never a
false note in the character as it is
meant to be, and no higher praise can
be given, but | never want to see her
in the character again
As Skies. Mckee Rankin was as
frankly brutal as he was required to
he. Nothing, except Nine. Frochard,
in the Two Orphans, is as frankly
brutal There is not redeeming
point in the character OF course,
again it must be pointed out how eX-
cellent was the art which played and
which made up the character. If a
man plays Bill Skies, no man can
play him better than Mr.. Rankin.
Of course the main situation in the
play is the murder of Nancy. This
was carried out with horrible real
ism and detail which was too much for
many of the audience. The old Greek
tragedians had IA good idea. No one
was killed on the stage. l doubt If
! the representation of brutal murder
is very elevating. One reads kipling' S
Badalia Herodsfoot with interest, but
the scene where her husband kicks her
to death would not be very pretty on
the boards.
AS Fagin, Herbert Carr was a decid-
ed hit. The mean, avericious Jew
was portrayed to the life, and the
make up admirable. l do not agree
with San Francisco critics that he
ranted too much. The last scene OF
Fagin in his cell was as horrible as il
could be, but it was ably portrayed
OF the rest of the company there is
not much too say. Miss Atfie McVick
er's Oliver was colorless, ii. a. Weaver
made a fair Mr. BrownlOw and Franz
Robins an equally fair Dodger.
thank him for not making it as vul
gar as Toole's. The remaining parts
are the veriest padding for the maiT
characters.
wish to give all praise to those
who played the characters, all prais'
to the stage management, all prais,
to the skill and the art, but Olive
Twist has been seen for the last tim
by
THE OF ID PLAY G0ER