Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-10-01

4
when he scorned TO be the Lazarus who
gathered up the crumbs OF bookmak-
ing Dives. When Willie the Swan trod
the boards of the little Globe theatre
on the Bankside and Ben Jonson held
forth at the Mermaid, it was the pub
Usher who went a-begging after the
stage manager Productions were
turned into books and not books into
productions.
Nowadays all that is changed. To-
day we behold passion to seize on sue
cessful novels, both old and new, and
after amazing lamentations and trans
formations to dish them up before the
footlignts to a public that grows ever
more edacious for such dramatic It'd
bits. The novel adapter does this with
the facility of the Montmartre restau-
rateur who takes his cold mutton and
by mysterious and unspeakable meth
DDS converts it into rechauffe de
poulet.
It does not necessarily follow that
such a condition of affairs argues that
the modern playwright lacks ideas and
imagination. 1t has, however, its own
particular significance, since the gulf
that must ever separate the artist from
the mere artisan, the adapter from the
creator, is a wide one.
But whether we like it or not. the
modern manager has ordained that the
entrance to the stage must be by way
of the publishers office. The present
season, accordingly, fairly bristles with
dramatized novels. Among the differ
emit stories which already have been or
shortly are to be presented to New
York audiences in this popular form of
dramatic ragout are such books as
when Knighthood Was In Flower"
"Sherlc~ Holiness Ben Hur,' A
Tale of Two Cities "Sappho," "The
Children of the Ghetto, Besides the
Bonnie Brier Bush, THE Gadfly," and
last, but one of the most important of
all, VANITY Fair"
The play founded on this last men
toned novel is the current attraction
at the Fifth Avenue theater in this
city, where its original performance by
Mrs. Fiske and particularly large and
illustrious company attracted a great
deal Of attention.
The reasons for this were many. One
was that Mrs. Fiske had come to be
looked on as Americas greatest actress.
Another was that many persons regard
'sVanity Fair" as the worlds greatest
novel Still another source of interest
was that Tlhackeray had always left the
little blackleg heroine of his tale more
or less in doubt, and people were anx-
aous ID see just how Mrs. Fiske, through
- MP. Langdon Mitchell, the adapter of
the novel would unite the gordian
knot
But the stanchest supporter of Mrs.
Fiske must have trembled for her ar
tistic fate when he first beheld her as
Becky Shary The play, in the first
place. was inadequate. ineoherent and
vapid.
To find the cause of this one has not
10 seek far. The spirit Of the original
work of Thackeray, with all it's whim-
steal humor, its incomparably delicate
but deft Characterization, and. above
all, its redeeming kindness, showing
like sunlight patches through its clouds
of satire and cynicism, had been lost
In the translation. With such a work
dramatization meant EQUALIZATION, and
Il Mr.. Langdon Mitchell has failed he
may console himself with the reflection
That such failure was to a degree in
evitable. But even in the face Of these
extenuating circumstances the adapter
of VANITY Fair" will not readily be
forgiven for the liberties he has taken
with the literary masterpiece of an au-
.hor who is no longer on earth to guard
his own with that sacredness with
which finished work of art always
should be guarded.
Maurice Barrymore as RaWdon was
by no means convincing in a part that
would have proved an FL Dorado to an
actor of talent, since, in fact, it was the
latest part in the play. Tyrone
Power as the Marquis Of Steyne was as
excellent as Wilfred North was mad
equate in the part of the good hearted
old Dobbin, whom he converted into an
asinine dolt. Robert Ferguson as Sir
Pitt Crawley did admirable work, and
the same might be said of William Ow-
ems Jos Sedley, though it could not
possibly apply to Zenaide Williams
Interpretation of the role of Amelia.
The play, on the whole might be call
ed a magnificent failure, for, unsatis-
factory as what one might call it ar
tistic and spiritual presentation prov
ed to be, the mechanical perfection with
which 1t was put forward was brilliant
In the extreme. In view OF this
fact and remembering the great fol-
lowing which the sincerity and I'M
compromising earnestness of Mrs.
Fiske has wen for the impersonator of
Rebecca, there will even be certain per-
sons who will claim that Becky
Sharp" is a great play. But their
names will not be legion.
.'Becke Sharp" is sort of theatrical
pousse cafe. Instead of being one well
blended coherent, organic dream OF
four acts it is a conglomeration of -four
distinct and detached parts, each one
of which swims independently about in
its own color like the graduated liquids
in that variously colored drink of the
blase bouleyardier. Without ones
Thackeray to fall back on, the specta-
tor at the Fifth avenue theatre would
be left hopelessly at sea. With ones
Thackeray in mind one is left in a
slough of despond 1t leaves the spec
tator between the devil and the deep
sea, for since a novel of such complex
ity and wealth of incident as Vanity
Fair" could not all be crowded into a
drama, the adapter has taken really
%@ The Easy Food
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