The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-07-05
THENEIIIS IN ALABAMA
The Presentation Tuesday Night Was
Triumph of Dramatic Art-The
Characters and the Actors.

when Augustus Thomas play ALA
bama, was first produced, It was hailed
as the great American play. II was
thought that demonstration had been
made that a purely American theme
with indigenous American characters,
rightly seized and handled furnished
the dramatic material for the first OF a
school of plays that would be classic,
and i'm a sense, world plays" II had
a tremendous run. 1t was produced to
crowded houses in every city In the
Union by the strongest dramatic or
CARNATIONS 1t was followed by a flood
Of other plays that sought success by
more or less close and clever imitation.
But the iconoclastic march of time
with the changes of sentiment ii brings
and the changes of manners and ma
tional outlook, has shown that these
ambitious hopes for II have not been
realized. II has shown that ii is sim
ply a dramatic picture though a skillful
one, of a local, and passing phase of
life in a great country
But while the play has been robbed
of some of the hopes entertained for 1t,
il has not been robbed of its true merit,
its deft, gentle treatment of those sem
timents of flial affection, courtesy and
chivalry, which in the south have had
such a luxurious, and because luXur-
ious, i'm some manifestations, an almost
a place, and is indeed a classic, but not
in the strong, robust, overmastering
class that was hoped for 1t. Its place
is among the minor classics of the Ora
ma.
But it is alike tribute to the truth
of the play and the capability of the
artists presenting it, that without the
| strong current of popular enthusiasm,
! which undoubtedly was large element
/ in its pristine success and in a COM
| munity which has little acquaintance
| with the local conditions it portrays,
| the presentation of it Tuesday night
should have been so unqualifiedly sue
cessful as it was.
To one who has been in the south,
or has seen much of the southern char
acter, Mr.. Neill, as Colonel Moberly,"
was the living man of the class of char
| acters of which Colonel Moberly' is
! the type He was a strong manly man,
who has met adverse circumstance, and
while not being wholly uninhuenced by
! it, has preserved not only the outward
| forms, but the true spirit of courtesy.
The Mrs. Page" of Edythe Chapman
was just as true a product of the pecu-
! liar social, political and industrial con-
| ditions that existed in the south, as
| that of Mr. Neilrs Colonel Moberly."
| 1t is a character of gentleness and iso-
I lation, but with the strength of true
gentility.
/ Perhaps the character least easily re-
conciiable with a priori notions of the
development of generous, noble and
/ liberal sentiments is that of Colonel
! Preston" 1t is a character which mad
| it's prototype in some respects among
| the irreconciliables and bourbOns of the
minor aristocracy of France who were
cut adrift from their lifelong associa-
! lions of social order by the French
! revolution, and were never after able
to adjust themselves to the march of
events. 1t is a character difficult to
make ineligible on first acquaintance.
That Frank McVicars made it real is
a tribute to his worth as an actor.
The Captain Davenport" of Bonn
! Howard, was, as he has shown his ten
dency to be, too subdued. One could al
most believe he had so imbibed the spirit
of the profession of civil engineering,
which was that of the character he por-
trayed, as to have laid out the lines of
his presentation of the character with
a level and transit.
The play introduced a new member
of the company, Scott Seaton, who, as
Raymond Page" showed himself a
well drilled and capable actor, if not a
brilliant one. The Decatur of EN-
NETT Shackelford was a gem. It's merit
would have marked it anywhere. In
it's setting it was a masterpiece. The
other characters, the Garry Preston
of Julia Dean, the Squire Tucker" OF
John w. Burton the Mr. Armstrong
of Robert Morris, the "Lathrop Page
of George Bloomquest, the Mrs. Stock
ton" of Grace Mae Lamkin and the
atlanta Moberly' of Rose Swain, were
all well done and meritorious.