The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-07-09
ALL MIRTHFUL JOILIIY


The "Amazons at the opera House
Amusos the Honolulu Public as 30
Never Has Been Amused
There are certain touchstoues iu the
dramatic art which mark the masters
oi d.. Any set of transformers can proc
duDe any piece that ever has been writ
ten. from Macbeth" TO the white +
Horse Tavern and that is wide enough .
Held both i'm time ana spirit / once saw
Barry Sullivan at Drury Lane i'm the /
former. very, very many years ago. and .
by the way, Joe Marsden, lately com
missioner of agriculture here. was one .
of the chorus of witches in that very
performance, We compared dates not /
SO long ago and found they agreed. and /
7 saw Anna Held in the latter not SO /
many months ago. Then, again, | have .
seen Macbeths by many VINO knew no .
more Of the Thaue than holman .
knows of goldsmith work, and / have T.
seen attempts at comic acting which .
We're tragic, and calculated TO make an
angel weep,
The tombstone of the Neil company
was, | think, on Saturday night, when
they played the "Amazons.' The play
gOers of the city have seen them in
variety Of performances, commencing
Win an american 'lllEeu, anu run
ming through a series of plays which
have brought out here and there the
special gifts of the performers, and
which showed that those playing We're
| thoroughly competent for their work,
and thoroughly in sympathy with their
authors. But there would be here and
there just a little jar, probably not no.
ticed by the general public, but plain
to the critic.
The rendering of the "Amazons" on
Saturday night, however, might be re-
garded as faultless. 1t was one of the
! smoothest the most delicately staged,
and the most daintily played bits of
comedy that it has been my fortune to
see anywhere, and certainly far ahead
of anything that has ever been pre-
scented upon the boards of a Honolulu
| theater,
1t is no easy task to play such a piece
as the "AmazOns." Not properly han
died it would degenerate into dizziness
and into farce. The piece is one of the
wittiest that has come from Mr.. Pin
eros pen, and next to Gilbert he is the
! daintiest of our modern dramatists,
not even excepting Miss Ryley, who is
treading close in the footsteps of Der
illustrious co-workers, and one can al
most now say, predecessors. Pinero's
plays always teach a lesson You go
from the theater after a few hours fun
and laughter and you think over
over what you have seen, and then sud
denly ii dawns on you that there is
| something deeper than you thought of.
1t is not all clowns tricks and rollick-
ing gaiety. The foibles of life have been
held up to the mirror of truth, the jes
ter with his merry laugh was the teach
! err after all.
The "Amazons" shows us that you
cannot go contrary to human nature,
that woman will be woman even though
Il,
to give her a masculine education and
turn of thought. And woman must be
tender, and modest and good. 1t is the
pretties little social satire, sort OF
Tennysons Princess" modeTnized and
up to date. And then, how excellent is
the pure literary merit of the play. It's
| lines are briStling with brilliant, polish
ed and pungent wit. We had brilliant
and pungent lines in Lady Winder-
meres Fan" which is full of epigrams,
but in spite of it's brilliance that play
is unsatisfactory. But the 'Amazons'
is clean, whole hearted, straightror-
ward and wholesome. Who ever saw
and heard it, saw and heard a good play
well acted, and must have been the
better for it.
1t seems almost inVidious to speak in
dividually of the players; the piece was
played so evenly, and each seemed to
be fitted exactly to his or her particular
charming trio than the ladies Noe
line" miss Chapman), "Wilhelmina'
Miss Lamkin) and 'Thomasin" (Miss
DEAN, whom their masculine minded
mother insisted on calling Lord Noel,
Lork Willie and Lord Tom.
The wearing of masculine clothes by
a woman can be dainty and modest, or
it can be vulgar and suggestive. Suf-
ticient to say that the costumes of these
ladies were worn with the most perfect
modesty and elegance l thought as l
looked at Miss Chapman, what lovely
'ROsalind" she would make. She was a
charming Lady Noeline," and there
are passages of petulance and womanli-
ness in the character which carry one s
mind to that fairest of Shakespeare S
creations. OF all Shakespeare heroines
"ROsalind is the sweetest, and one may
say of all the range of Pinero's women,
Lady Noeline" occupies a similar
plane.
Miss Julia Dean had the opportunity
of the season as the saucy Lady
Thomasin," and from start to finish she
kept the bubbling and humming fun
/ sparkling like the brightest of cham
payne. She certainly made the best of
her opportunity, and won continuous
applause from the audience There was
a dash and freshness which captured
, you in spite of yourself; you were ire
: sistibly carried out of yourself.
The "Marchioness of Castlejordan"
found an able exponent in Lillian An
drews. This lady always plays well.
l was struck with her ability when I
first saw her, and my impression is con-
firmed by every succeeding impersona-
tion that l see. She put the proper dig
nifty into the character and kept the
position of the high born lady most
! carefully, no matter how comic the
scenes, and thus heightened the effect
of the comedy. There must remain a
word Of praise TO the Sergeant Shutter
of Miss Swain which though a minor
part, requires careful playing, and Miss
Swain was that careful and painstaking
exponent.
AS to the men in the play / would like
to say much, and it would be mostly in
the superlative as IT seems my whole
criticism is But ! must dismiss them
with this general praise.