The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-09-19
Theatrical News.

| AS the News and Observer buys and
pays for it's theatrical tickets, it thought
it ought to have the right to criticise
the show without asking Manager Riv-
| ers' permission. BY the same token 1t
had thought it had right to tell it's
| readers in advance what sort of attrac-
| lions are coming here. There it's duty
ends.
Manager Rivers has monopoly of all
the opera houses in Raleigh He uses one
| and keeps the other closed. Is it not
| little too much for him to aspire to
monopoly of the newspapers also?
| Greensboro, like other North Carolina
towns has been getting only poor theat-
| rical attractions this season. The Record
has grown tired of this, and in order
| that it's readers may no longer be i'm
posed upon it proposes to adopt the
| News and Observers policy of giving
warming in regard to the show in ad-
vance. The editor of the Record says:
| I'VE desire now to give notice that
| hereafter we propose to do double duty
and when we find any intimation that
a show is not what it is claimed, to
publish the fact at once
Touching Frederick Warde. billed
| to appear at the Academy of Music to-
| night, the Richmond News says
| HE has great faults. he rants un-
doubtedly; he roars and bellows at times
| in the most unpleasant manner; he con-
ceives some parts very differently from
my idea Of them, and l have never seen
him without disappearing of many
| things he does. But / have never seen
him without confessing his ability. He
possesses the true dramatic talent-the
power to make you weep and Shudder
| at his will. The absurd righteousness
| of himself and his companions, when
ever the action takes on the semblance
Of animation, or when the speech takes
| on the form of passion, is often trouble
some. Even Mr.. Warde seems incor-
rigible in the useless scheme to dumb
found an audience into installing the
real quality of the authors matter.
His performance of Mark Anthony
gives striking evidence of his limita-
tons. 1t is deficient in dignity, desti
tute of grandeur and especially desti-
tute of inherent personal fascination-of
the suggestiveness of being great man.
The actor who does not invest this char
acter with that inherent, overwhelming
personal fascination, does not attain to
it's altitude. Ward was particularly
out of character in the funeral ovation,
because there he made the quality of the
man behind the action seem especially
common. The action, though, was
theatrical, and had it's due effect. Mr..
Warde is a rhetorician, an actor. He
reads some of his lines beautifully,
throws himself into graceful attitudes,
and convinces you that he is a scholar
and a gentleman but he never let's you
forget Mr.. Warde, he never completely
identifies himself with the part
Mr.. Herman made an excellent
Brutus, gentleness, firmness, infiexibil-
ity and courage that are inherent in the
part.
!. Brock Beckwith did not give an in
tellectual reading of julius Caesar. His
dignity was awkwardness, and his lev
ity clownishness.
'Antionette Ashton was painfully un-
convincing as Portia, the wife of Bru-
tus, and Virginia Drew Trescott was
distinctly vulgar as Caesars wife,
neither her art nor her method being
above suspicion.
while the production as whole does
not convince the mind, it still serves to
delight the eye, and much of the poetic
atmosphere remains to lconvince the
Imagination
The Great" Clivette, who was billed
to appear here last Saturday night. but
did not SHOW up-probably on ac-
count of the Presidents death--gave a
performance Tuesday night at Whining
ton. The Star thus tells us what treat
we missed:
1T is plainly evident, judging from
last nights small audience at the opera
house, that the minds of Wilmington
theatre goers do not turn to maglclans
and their performances. In this they are
right if magieians like Clivette are to
star and alone ask their patronage. But
as to last evenings performance, Gil
vette was the whole show to use a
trite expression. but then the whole
show" did not amount to a great deal.
For versatility he was excellent, as he
gave a combination of jItgglery, legerde-
main, etc. Some were good, some in
different and some bad. His Fielding
bottle feature was splendid, as was also
the Silhouettes, but tine legerdemain,
the milk in the cocoanut.s was off color.
This part of the perfor nance was not
even stereotype, unless IL be hkened to
some side show exhibition. 1t was bad,
bad
The Greensboro papers are mercilessly
roasting the Guy Woodland Comedy
company, which is appearing there this
week The Record says of it:
Last night, while res srved seats were
brought down to seventy-five cents, the
price was just seventy cents too high,
even had a cushion been thrown in to sit
on. Mr. Woodward has. been here many
times and his prices were ten. twenty
and thirty or thirty-five cents. At that
time he had show we'll worth the
money. Last night he had as poor a
show as ever appeared in Greensboro. !"