The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-12-30

any less splendid or complete production
than that now offered at the Lyceum
theater. No less reverent in its treat
ment of sacred things than the novel. the
play presents to the eye the very pictures
for the making 9of which the novelist is,
compelled to depend upon the imagination
of his reader s But the Imagination is a
wonderful painter and it inevitably hap
pens that some of the stage pictures do
not equal in splendor or impressiVeness
the inlaginings that throng through the
mind OF him who with understanding and
Intelligence reads the great story.
On the other hand. these wonderful
stage pictures bear the impress of truth.
The seharacteristics scenery of the Holy
Land, the variant garb of Jew and Ro
man and Arab and Egyptian, the houses
of Antioch and j erusalem, the interior of
a Roman galley where slaves toiled in
tiers at the oars, the revels in the grove
Of Daphne, tleSsongs of the paln-bear
/ ing followers slfeJes1ls on Mount Olivet-
these1and the many other scenes In the
long product ton are as close to historical
truth as it is possible fol. the resourceful.
painstaking and generous modern producer
10 make them. It is an education, nay,
almost revelation, TO see ben Ilur"
upon the stage, to watch the very char
acters of the story move about In their
cWn proper garb and environment, to hear
zpeIm 70 m t we ,sio aGsH on fhe
dramatic alone Of all the arts is able to
produce SO perfectly.
There are times when the imagination
must help. One of these is in the famous
and much discussed chariot race scene.
Wonderful as is the mechanism by which
two, chariots, each with four horses at
tached, seem to careen wildly and with
sickening speed about the course, the
spectator must half close his eyes and
yield himself up to the; excitement with
which the air is electric. II he does not
he will hear the roar of the sub-stage
machinery instead of the roar of the race
course; he will see the irnmoble. pros
cenium arch which frames the picture in
stead Of the crowded amphitheater at An
tiOch; he will note that the flying char
lots do not for all their speed get outside
the area. Of his vision, and at last when
MESSIAH falls back, yielding sublime
vengeance to his noble enemy, a VEN
Fgeance won by nerve and prowess and
skill, the looker-on will say to himself
Every ingenious" when he should be lost
In exultat1On over great and just vic
tory. The playwright has done well his
part in furnishing the antecedent inspira
ton for the race-the coquetries of the
Egyptian with the two rivals in the race,
the ebullient enthusiasm of their parti-
Fans, the laying Of great wagers wherein
the crafty. Jew with the guile Of his ma
ton gets the most advantageous terms
out of the reckless and over confident Ro-
mans. And. so it usually happens that
audiences, as that Of last night, did, go
wild with the joy Of Ben Hur's victory
in the chariot race. =
Considered as play, apart from it's
scenic and . mechanical marVels, Ben
Hur" show the touch of a dramatist who
has been, prudent enough to keep close
to General; Wallace's text and al the same
time clever enough to select the salient
and essentially dramatic features Of the
story and put them together sequentially
and with cumulative. interest. William
Young's work has been well done. Using
the chariot race for the great climax Of
the play, as it is of the book, he has
handled the more difficult denouement
Of the miracle on Mount 0livet with deli
cate precision. s. 49, 49, 80,
The reverent spirit in which the play is
conceived and enacted has led to the adop-F
ton of an eXpedient in this denOuement.
about which there will be honest differ
ence of opinion-the representation Of
Jesus cleansing the lepers by a shaft Of
pure, white light To General Wallace
this was the solution of all difficulties in
the dramatization Of his book. He could
not consent to the actual irnpersonation Of
the NaZarene on the state. It seemed
to him, as it would doubtless seem to-
many others, irreverent and impossible.
Yet at 'Oberammergau. no such thought
| obtrudes upon the spectator, while in the
| miracle play Of ''Everyman" recently pro-
| duced in New York, the deity was imper-
personated by a man under immensely
| greater difficulties and, it is said, with
| success. :. The objection to the shaft of
| light is that it was not thus that Jesus
| performed his miracles. TO those upon
whom he laid the benson of his hand or
| his word he appeared as a man, infinitely
| compassionate and tender, but without
| doubt a man. Yet it is impossible to
| deny that the scene is one of the most I'M
| pressive in all stageland. -.
| 1t sometimes happens that in a produce
| ton where so much attention and money
| is expended on the scenic and mechanical
! details, the standard Of acting in the COM
| pany is low, Happily, this Is not the case
| in Ben Hur.' The persons in the cast
are with few exceptions equipped to give
| to the noble dialogue Of the play and it's
| tragic swing Of action their full value
eye with his handsome person and satisfies
the Imagination with his conception of
the young prince. There are pa ssages
where, sustained by the inspiration Of a
real situation, he let's down too much
and permits his utterance to become indis-
tinct, but in the really tense scenes-of
which there are many-he rises to the
emergency readily. In effective contrast
with his noble impersonation is the Mes
sala Of Basil Gill; who realizes effectively
the arrogance, the passionate unrestraint
the hardness Of the young Roman. Far
and away the finest piece of acting in the
production is the Simonides Of Dodson
Mitchell. The lights and shades Of his
portrait of the faithful and wise old Jew
racked with bodily pain but with keen,
restless mind which over1eaped all obsta-
cies, are remarkably denoted. Never are
the lines that constant pain draws on the
human face relaxed, even though rapidly
varying emotion appear there. His scenes
with Judah and with his daughter are
finely conceived and executed. Perhaps
the master touch is where the servant tells
of the wonderful cures the Nazarene is
scattering along his pathway; the sud-
den hope that irradiates the old mans
Another fine Characterization is that of
Hur,s mother by Mabel Bert, whose ex-
pressively moduated voice gives the pa
thos of her plight an impressive value.
Helen Prindiville as the sister Of Hur
lends additional color to the picture. Ell
len Mortimer plays the daughter. of ST.
monides, whose faithful and noble heart
is finally rewarded with the love Of the
prince: rather inertly. She looks the part
but her voice is Inexpensive. Mabel Nor;
timer is alluring as the Egyptian and
evinces a becoming suppleness both men
tally and physically in that role. The
Amrah Of Stella Boniface Weaver is a
clear, sympathetic representation. Among
the other characters, one should not fail