The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-03-25
The DRAMA.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

Anyone who saw Lewis Morrison as
"Mephisto' in Faust Saturday night,
might well believe he had been playing
| it Tor sixteen years, as in speech from
the stage a few evenings before, he had
somewhat boastfully said he had been
doing.
Every gesture every intonation of
voice every muscular movement Of
"Mephisto' betrayed that it was the
mere working of habit, the stereOtyped
fac smile of that same gesture, in
tOnatiOn or muscular movement as
Morrison has given it for sixteen years.
The spirit of the actor was entirely alb
sent. 1t was an autOmaton playing the
part. Spontaneity was wanting. There
was no evidence Of conscious "Suiting
of the word to the action, the action
to the word, but every evidence that
the mere habitual conformity of word
! to action and action to word was haV-
ing full play. In Mephisto's smiles
end grins the facial muscles could be
plainly seen doing their duty by mere
force of habit, by mere reflex action,
and not by conscious direction of the
mind absorbed by the inspiration of the
sentiment expressed Just SO much of
the teeth and no more were shown in
each smile. Even the Mephitophilean
laugh was an echo, not the expression
of a feeling.
In one particular was Mr. Morrison
action vivid That was the unerring
accuracy with which he reached and
| held the center of the stage; never an
| inch to far, never an inch short; all
ways at the exact point the center of
the stage the goal both of the actors
ambition and his vanity. In all else his
part was habit; in this an active and
/ ever present vigilance.
OF the remainder of the play and
players little need be said. While Nor
I'm trh his "a
| for the outward working of the actor s
| spirit the others had not even formed
/ good habits of pOrtTaying the Senti-
ImentS of the play. In them there was
neither the working of habit nor the
! true spirit of the hstOriOnic act. Miss
Roberts however could be fully recOg-
nized as Marguerite by the two
/ braids of hair hanging down her back.
/ And yet for all this the company Kept
| the audience until half an hour after
midnight. 1t is true that this unreason-
able stretch of time included the pause
during which Mr. Morrison told from
the stage as an incident of his own eN-
perience in playing Faust story
which Marshall Il. Wilder i'm his book
published in 1889 relates as having been
told by James c. Blaine i'm 1882 or 1888
as having occurred in Dublin years and
years before that.
When the present company reached
here it was announced it had brought
ninety tons of scenery with it. As little
or none of this was in evidence on pre-
Ivious evenings, perhaps the time when
Faust" ought to have been on the
stage was occupied by the stage hands
handling this ninety tons of scenery.
Perhaps also it was to give the audi
Ience a run for its 81 seats that the per-
Torrance was strung out so long.
The most realistic part of the per-
Torrance was participated in by the
audience. The evening was one of the
hottest and closest evenings Honolulu
has experienced for long time. The
house was filled to its capacity, and
yet the management made no effort to
Ventilate the house by opening the side
exits during the long waits between
the acts This neglect gave the proper
atmosphere" to the performance.