The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-06-02
AT THE THEATERs

AT THE THEATERs
Metropolltan--Mrs, Leslie Carter In "Du
Barry
The Du Barry of history and the Du
Barry q Belasco are two different per-
sons. David Belesco, with no reverence
at all for the facts pf history! but with
the greatest possible reverence for dra- 7
matte effect, has taken this gorgeous |
strumpet from the royal mire in which
she fourished and set her into such q
play that one condones her sins and ac-
tualiy sheds tears over her richly merited |
fate. The playwright has thus proved the |
dlctum OF de Maupassant that mo woman |
Is really bad at heart and, in the demon
stration, has constructed a great play.
Shakespeare damned the character Of |
Richard, last of the P!antagenets, for all |
time by a play. And now Belasco has
performed greater miracle by working |
the redemption of Du Barry-on the stage.
This has been accomplished by fitting |
her out with something she never really
possessed heart. The heart inter-
est'-was there ever a playmaker who
handled 1t so cleverly or made its appeal to
ones sympathies so insidious? AT every
step in5her profigate career.sit appears in
the nick Of time to palliate and excuse
and explain. What a master stroke to
| make the heart Of Du Barry from first
to last, no matter into what depths her
love OF ease and pleasure leads her, true
| to one mani
lis in the second act, that the little
rn1iliner, now become the gamblers lure,
looks into her own soul and tells the man
she loves what she sees there. He has
implored her to fly with him to an Area
pauses to make this subjective analysis
7 which Is to explain all her subsequent
conduct 1t is true that an untutored wo-
man of impulse like Jeanette, whose char
! acter was composed-as de Maupassant
says-of two powerful ingredients, pas
1 sion and simple truth, would scarcely be
/ capable of such penetrative introspection.
Nor could she describe in such NOV
ing words, worthy Of a Hamlet
the fatal defect in her character
which she dimly foresaw was to cheat
her at last of that sweet life in Arcadia.
! But Belasco, yielding to the dramatic
necessity Of enlisting sympathy for her
from the very outset, awards to her this,
i the most significant passage in the play.
1t is to be noted, too, that the play, Whlie
dealing with life in one of the most cor
rupt courts in history, is far from being
immoral In tendency. The doll OF the
| world Is the unhappiest of women. One
may pity but not envy her. Not In the
widest whirl Of royal orgy may she for
= get those .unpluckedsviolets; and the sui
lien mutterings Of the populace without the
gates fill her soul with the terror Of an I'M
pending fate. n The trappings of vice,
splendid as Louis XIV. can make them, do
nots conceal the utter soul WEAKNESS of
! this woman. And then comes the con-
! trasting desolateness Of those last days
when the jubilant threatenings of the
:Marseillaise" penetrate even to her quiet
) retreat, and when,5 at last, the Revolution.
; inexorable and GRIM claims for the tum-
bril- it's pitiful passenger
II Co-partner with the wizard Belasco in
making the powerful appeal of this woman
to the imagination is Mrs. Leslie Carter,
whose art he developed and directed, but
whose wonderfully plastic temperament.
which permits her to put on a character
like garment, is her own birthright. She
realizes the very woman whom Belasco
has conceived and whose character grows
steadily, from the hour aof the coquettish
: little milliner, to that; Of the crushed wom-
an, afraid to die, on. her pathetic journey
4 to DR.. Guillotines machine. sl.,s
1t is one thing to assume character that
9 does not change in the course Of a play;
t it is quite another and "a. greater achieve
ment to present successive pictures of a
: character, all consistent and yet nicely
n differentiated by the events that have
y gone before and by the environment of the
a Barry's life that Mrs. Carter unrolls be-
!. fore us.
v Her face actually seems to grow old
y before our eyes as play proceeds and it
n is by. no trickssof makeup bat this is &C
! eomplishsd. Neat M as's Car
t much and they say It Beautifully. Her
I! voice is the third In her trio Of expression
and it has been trained to do marvellous
q things. Think Of herr Mysteries before the
Il petit leveess and thes5sobs of theSspoiled
g child that interrupted her salutations tc
n the court ladies--a rare touch Of nature
g indeed. And the poor weak voice of The
: condemned woman at the last-how much
9 more truthfully it told Of her soul-terrol
e1 than the shrieks Of d less finished artist
: would have done.
p Mrs. Carter is not beautiful. But she
Q somehow makes you think she is-whicf
= amounts to the same thing.
= While there are crowds Of people or
4 the stage at times, and while the cast OF
q characters is long beyond precedent, there
: are few roles that call for great acting
: Louis XIV, is, of course, important, anG
- Charles A.. Stevenson presents a too fiat
!. tering portrait of this royal debauchee
: The worst Of the Bourbons has been sub.
Il limated for dramatic purposes, and Mr.
= Stevenson plays the part with unh1storic
9 dignity and force. The Jean Du Barry Of
Campbell Gollan is somehow lacking II
the fnesse that enabled this adventure
to attain such power in France, just as
the Richelieu of George Barnum lacks the
}cynical corruption that distinguished the
Y, great cardinals nephew. These disap
: |pointments are perhaps chargeable to the
l, playwright, who had time only to develol
g the role of Du Barry. Hamilton Revellt
d makes virile, earnest and personabl'
l. lover. The papal nuncio Of H. R. Rob
h erts and the faithful Denys Of Claude Gil
1T lingwater are deserving of Communications
IT 1t is impossible to speak too enthusiast
1T tically of the manner in which the pro
" duction is staged, Of the impressivel
lie beautiful effects that are obtained, or o
e any of the thousand and one evidences
1t Of Mr.. BeIasco's mastery of the techniqu
IN of his profession. The audience, too, wa
l. one worthy Of the occasion, which mark
Of the beginning Of the last week Of a re
m markedly successful season at the Metro
i'll politan.
~ w. B. Chamberlain.
8, -
,g Foyer Chat.
If E. j. Carpenters FOR Her Sake,
va staged in an admirable manner and pre-
1g scented by a. good company, will be tn
* attraction for the closing week of tn
,ir season at the Bijou. The story Of thi
melodrama depicts Russian and Siberia
life.
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