The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-11-02
nUsIC AND DRAMA.
QUO vAprs,

year In chicago, IL was maoo Tor reu
q. Whitney and Edward Knowles and
alter a jndioious pruning covered the
metropolitan circuit and what IL known
rs the STANCE version was the Offering
for the first time in this city at the Jeffer-
son theatre last evening. From tho book
tbs dramatist has taken the pictures and
piased them upon the stage in q logical
and more or less connected order with an
atmosphere all about which would be
congenial to Roman types I'm the time
Of Nero. q As picture and spectacular
play then "Quo Vadis' has IN attractive
ness which 1t lends Itself 60 production.
It is staged with the most minute
regard to desail and opens In the house of
Petronius, Roman Tribune. The
second scene Is a set scene OF the garden
surrounding the home Of Auius Piatius
In which the beautiful Lygia and Aulus
are playing near the foun tain. The
40 ion is the arrival Of the guards from
Nero palace to make captive Lygia who
bsc Jmes frightened and refuses o &C.
comrauy the soldiers but 10 Il ally
prevailed upon and reluctantly o. an .es
her mind On her arrival ut NJ
paes, thu wife OF the Emperor, Tearing
that she Will be supplAnued by her In
tie affections of Nero. AS an episode
the baby OF the Empress Ia brought into
the gardens and Lygia asks protection In
the name Of the little child. Later the
rapy dies ard Peppeea accuses Lygia OF
b wing bewitcned IL and strenuously
appeais to Nero TO wreak vengeance on
IN rad Of all Christians, which he
promises TO do. il is just at this time
uhat the subtle wit of fetronius. which
10 60 obvious throughout the entire story,
asserts itself and plays on the egotism ana
vanity OF Nero who has a mistaken
notion that he is singer OF no little
merit.
Lygia, however, safely arrives at the
palaes and a feast follows. Nero appoints
Vinieius her legal guardian and orders
20, and Vinicius, having become drunk,
forces his love upon her and Is nearly
killed by Ursus, the giant slave. In this
meantime Lygia Is assured by Aote, the
handsome maid OF Poppaea that she
will be rescued by her fellow Christians
who are on their way to the house of
Glaucus for protection and shelter. 1t Is
in the gardens OF Glsuous where the first
persecution of the Christians begin and
d finale of the act 10 vivid picture of the
burning of Rome.
In the fourth act we are transported
about to engage in the dance while Nero
is reading q ew poem which he has just
composed about the burning of Troy
which Fetronius critioizes quite sharply
and very adroitly saves himself by telling
the author he might have done so much
better. just then Nero is informed that
Roms is burning and he hastens to the
doomed city to gather inspiration for the
finishing touches OF his poem to the
oulcet strains OF his lutte. The
fifth act opens on one of the rooms IN
Nero palace in Rome where Poppaea Is
and the Christians, The scene soon
changes to the Mamertine prison, an
underground one, where the imprisoned
Christians are silently awaiting death.
Lygia Is there and Vinicius plots for her
removal among the dead bodies that are
being habitually carried out but his
plans are frustrated. The climax OF this
act is when Lygia, the Christian maiden,
saves ohe life OF a pagan general by re-
peating TO Vinicius that one line Of scrip
ture, Thou shalt not kill" The final
act gives q view of the exterior of the
arena from Nero's private box, ana In
stead of the usual farcical property bull,
the actual struggle between Ursus and
the bull is left to the audience as
described from the box by Petronius and
Vinioius. Ursus acoomplishes a brilliant
feat, knowing that on his success depends
by twisting the neck OF the bull as II OF
straw, and on his success Nero grants
full pardon to him and Lygia who go TO
Sicily for the balance of their lives. The
scenery is elaborate and effective through
out while the costumes were rich and
presented variety seldom seen in q road
company.
10 Harrison j. Wolfe and Lauren Rees
fell the important roles of Vicinius and
Petronius. They speak their lines quite
well and MIR. Wolfe did good work In the
garden where he declares his love for
Lygia. MIR. Rees seems to see that
Petronius has two sides, the oourtier
who was willing to Halter and the
strong, true man with preference PER-
haps.. for the particulars side. Whoever
takes the part of Nero must do goo
character work. Supreme egoism mixed
ated and this Royal Thayer di1 fairly
well, Others in the male cast to be men,
toned are Alfred HolIingsworth and Fred
K. Beane. Master Clifford McCahill was
one of the hits of the evening as Little
Aulus. Alice Chandler who inpersonated
Lygis has pleasing voice and fine APP
pearance doing good work in the prison
scene aud that with Aulus. Poppaea's
wicked jealousy was forcibly presented by
Miss Caroline +. Rohr who depleted
villainy of most consistent type. Vasti
Hollis was the pretty slave of Petronius
releases her Her Characterization Ia es-
peoially to be commended and her scenes
were among the many noteworthy ones.
She has a very attractive personality.
These are but few OF the many speaking
parts of the number of thirty and
besides others were engaged making, all
in all, big array of persons.
The production win be repeated this
evening with a special matinee Saturday
and night performance.
ALDEN BENEDIOT'S "QUo vADIS. !"
"Quo vadis,' the book, has been
translated into all languages from the
original Polish, and has been read by
many millions, who have pronounced it
as one OF the classics OF the nineteenth
century. The wonderful popularity of
the book insures the success of the dra-
matic adoption OF 1t, which will be pre-
sented for the first time In this city at
the Portland theatre tonight. So success
full has Mr.. Chase been In dramatizing
AT h fkuk he 4