The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-12-16

the spell the tragedienne casts re-
mains long with those that have had
the rare delight of listening to her
beautiful voice and observing her
marvellous and exquisite art.
With a sigh we turn from the con-
sideration of her work to that of an
other foreign lady engaged this year
in an American INVASION" Mrs. Pat
rick Campbell. Mrs. Campbell sought
our shores and sheckels last season
also. She seems bit milder than Il
twelvemonth ago, not quite so given
to the exploiting of doubtful plays.
In fact her Aunt Jennie" of this sea-
son may be termed innocuous; a man
need not blush to sit beside his wife
or sister while the play progresses
before him. Instead of the usual sort
of thing with a lot of viciousness
gilded over to make it at all accept
really clever and clean little bit of
society life to study. And we have
a moral quite obvious; not the accus-
toned success of the real villain ana
the overburdening of the weak wom-
an. "Aunt Jennie" deals with man
with a past instead of the woman
with the past; and, contrary to gen
eral custom, the man reaps the wild
oats of his sowing. A woman of high
principle takes it upon herself to
teach a lesson to a man that all his
life had looked upon women as moth
ing but mere playthings, in the world
to minister to mans qualification
and passing whim. AT the moment
the man becomes for the first time
in his life in earnest, the woman re-
veals to him that he has been moth
ing to her but plaything.
| Mrs. Campbells other roles have,
almost without exception, l believe,
been those of ladies either Will pasts
behind them or unsavory presents
along with them. Mrs. Campbell, as
rule, has gathered about her large
audiences to look at the antics OF
! these unlovely females, and just ex-
actly what those large audiences
came out for to see / do not know.
The papers speak at length of Mrs.
I Campbell's remarkable gowns, but we
, have always thought them of especial
remarka bleness only because of what
was left off the waists and what was
put on to the trains. Many people
| speak gushingly of Mrs. Campbell:s
! fine acting, but it has seemed to us
to be largely an unconscionable lot
of elocuting and an unconscionable
lot of rolling of large orbs. For our
part we like naturalness rather than
clothes and theatricality.
| Our American actress, Mrs. Fiske,
in the naturalness of her methods. is
compared to Madame Duse. Mrs.
Fiske is prominently one not given
! to over-eNaggeration and artificial
/ ity, and therefore her work is so
convincing. We do not consider the
role in which this eminent lady is
now appearing so we'll suited to her
as several in which she has given us
delight, but she can never be other
I than interesting.
AS Becky Sharp we thought her
wonderful, and as Tess she added
thick laurels to the wreath she wears
/ so gracefully. AS Mary of Magdala,
her this seasons character. her work
is refined and beautiful, but we are
not altogether enamored of the play.
MARY of Magdala," the creation OF
Paul Heyse, the noted German novel
ist and dramatist, is considered n
wonderful retelling of an old story,
and many cultured theatergoers have
approved highly of Mrs. Fiske's pro-
duction of the drama. We do not
quarrel with Mrs. Fiske's interpreted
ton of the heroine; we repeat she
has appeared in roles much better
suited to her personality.
THE AsTROLoGEP