The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-05

The past week has been an unusually
interesting one at the Butte theatres.
StockWelIs company and Frank Dan
iels filled the week at the Grand. and
Martell's comedians were at the Union.
Stockwell with "A Midnight Bell play
ed to good business for five perform
ances, and Frank Daniels with his
splendid company of talent and beauty
also packed the house for four per-
formances with audiences made up of
the best people of Butte.
Tonight Kelly and Mason, in "Who
is Who" a farce comedy that will
prove new to the people of this city
will be at the Grand. and the next at
traction following will be Clara Thropp,
on March H. in "A Dolls House" Miss
Thropp is a great admirer of the great
Scandinavian dramatist, Henrik Ibsen,
and is a notable exponent of chara ctprs
in his dramas.
Il love this Norwegian Shakespeare"
said Miss Thropp in a recent inter
view. Though his plays have achieved
a remarkable success throughout the
world, it is to women that he directly
appeals. The fact that he is poet ac-
counts for his psychological tendencies,
for all poets are fond of metaphysics
but his knowledge of the heart of a
woman makes him more than a poet
he is magician. l am not talking of
the new woman tso-callad), but of the
every day woman, the woman men
love and marry, his knowledge of her
little sutferings and joys, her pettiness
under ordinary circumstances her
grandeur under suffering. In none of
his works is this so clearly brought OUT
as in A Dolls House.
And relative to this play I want to
say word or two about the theatre
going public. Most people are too ant
to mistake an instance. For an exam
pie, because Nora leaves her husband,
it is no reason why all women who dis
cover weakness in their husband should
do likewise Nora realized that her
whole life had been one of sham and
hypocrisy, of lies and affectatiOn, and
when the truth of her weakness is at
last revealed to her she knows thai an
entire change of environment is her
only means of salvation. Had her hus
band been strong. brave and true she
would have looked to him for guidance.
but his ahjeCt terror had made him so
contemplate in her eyes thai She lyas
forced to say with more Candor than
Kindness, i must set about educating
myself; you are not the man to aid
me in this and again, You neither
think nor act like the man | can bass
my life with
Il must say that as a rule I am no
great lover of problem plays, hut the
DOofs House is-what shall ] saw
healthy, and for that reason We had
better call it a domestic drama"
DO you believe the public appre-
ciates the higher branches of dramatic
art?"
IF by public you mean the masses.
| should say no. Patrons of the higher
branches of art are in the minority in
this country. This has often been ex-
planned to me by the man of business
tand that is what nearly every Ameri-
can citizen isl who will tell YOU thai
after a day spent in stuffy office the
relaxation Of an evenings amusement
enables him 70 appreciate some musical
ahsurdity III preference to ANYTHING
that entails any mental strain what
ever. strange to say. they oriOy the fdf-
otto farce or the blood currilfng mpIodra-
ma. | cannot Tor the lif,. If me see why
the masses should not enjoy a ShnkeS
Dearpian comedy which renders the
double satisfaction Of improving Nht1a
1t amuscS. In the eighteenth century,
even the working man laughed win
Sir Toby Bottom and l'a1staT Now
unfortunately they prefer tn rrcit. the
questionable Jokes of Mu}1ooH. NIcFad-
den and others OF the illz"
Put to return to Ibstu D0 YOU
think it win become popular in 1his
couHtry?'
u haven't the slightest doubt If Il.
! think in shor, time wa viii hive
COMPANIES presenting nothing hu, !b-