Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-02
ADJUSTMENTS.

| NEW NATIONAL THEATER.-Iast
night at the New National Theater MIR.
| Charles Frohman presented William
Shakespeare. The combination of Elisa
bethan poet and New York manager was
a remarkably happy one, and an audience
which completely filled the theater remain
ed from the beginning of the play until the
| fair Juliet, after cutting a few lines out
| of her closing speech and stabbing herself
| with Romeos dagger, peacefully expired.
| What the Shakespearean drama has long
| needed is a capable modern manager who
would consent to present his plays in
| capable modern manner. This has been
| done with brilliant success in the present
| instance. An irreverent story has been
| printed to the effect that Mr.. Frohman.
| having called upon trusted litterateur for
| scenario, was presented with an outline
of Romeo and Juliet with the names
| changed, whereupOn he declared that 1t
| was one of the greatest romantic dramas
| ever written: and gave orders for its i'm
mediate production. This is doubtless untrue.
But if the play had been fresh from the
broadway mental mint, with its record
still to be made before a later-day audi
ence, more care to scenic detail and
more ability as to stage management could
not have been shown. There was precision
as well as laVishness in the presentation;
there were no long waits between the acts,
and every picture and pose and gesture
indicated careful study. If the actors had
been no more than marionettes, the splen-
doris of costume and stage-furnishing, to-
gether with the rapid action, would have
commanded interest. But there was no
disposition to slight the cast. While there
were no players. who by their previous
performances had given assurance of their
htness to play the prominent characters
or the Shakespearean drama, all were
actors with whom the public has had close
and approving acquaintance.
With Miss Maud Adams Juliet Mr.
Faversham as Romeo, Mr. James X. Hack
EFT Mercutio and w. H. Thompson
F'riar Laurence, there was ample evidence
that the performance would have much to
commend 1t. But to appreciate this en-
terprise Shakespeare must be taken off his
pedestal and put face to face with the de-
mands of the present era: This procedure,
so sensibly undertaken by Mr.. Frohman,
resulted In a production whose merits far
unbalanced its defects and which will live
pleasantly In the minds of people who are
content to regard Shakespeare as a great
poet and playwright and not as a demi
god. There is always some actess to
whom feminine worship goes, voluntarily
and almost unanimously. Miss Maud
Adams is now the lady whose charms COM
pei the unqualified approval of the sex
which is additionally pictured as jealous
of its own members. The girlshness of
Juliet Is the phase of the character which
MISS Adams realizes beautifully and COM
pietely. The effacement of g1rlhood and
the transition into majestic WomanhOod is
distinctly marked by crisis in the play
the scene in which the nurse advises her to
forget Romeo and marry Paris as she
might do without danger of reproach from
any source, save her own conscience. Her
choice, unaided by any counsel save her
own, stamps her as a woman of heroic
mold. After this her nature sounds depths
into which only an actress of extraordinary
emotional gifts may venture with assurance.
Even the matter of physical powG becomes
vital consideration. OF Miss Adams intelI-
gent conception of the role there can be no
doubt, and so much of this conception as
she succeeds in conveying is beautiful. Up
to the turning point in Juiiets career Miss
Adams is an ideal Juliet; thence to the con-
cluslon of the piece she is. as many GEM
mentators amiably phrased it, a new Jul
let. Mr.. James X. Hackett played Mer-
Quito with spirit and Intelligence. Mr.. t'a-
Versham met with the pictorial require
ments of the role of Romeo very handsome
". His reading, while fluent and melo-
dious, does not indicate any profound study
of the character. Mr.. W. H. Thomson
made the part of Friar Laurence interest,"
ing and human Mrs w. G.. Jones' as the
nurse and Eugene Jepson as Capulet were
both conspicuOusly good. The production
was one of extraordinary ma snitude prob
ably far better in its general quality than
any performances of the play which Shake
speare himself saw, when Juliet was i'm
personated by some lusty boy, who DOTTED
his skirts at each performance and might
II need be, use his stout arm against anv
VINO questioned his art in portraying a
lady in distress ~