The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-25
ISBEN'S HEDDA CALLER
STRONG DRAMA AT MoNTGoM-
 FRY THEATRE.
Miss Otis and Company Presented Great Character Play in Satis- flying Manner to
 Small Audience.

Me? I have no turn but for boring
 myself to death.''
 in this misanthroplc aentepce, Hedda Gabler sums up. as she views it, her char | acter. a character which Ibsen has made synonymous with feminine villainy, a stage classic to be mentioned with lago, her masculine counterpart.
 It is study in feminine deviltry. this | Hedda Gabler, a remorseless portrayal of
 a selfish. disappointed woman, pitilessly cruel in her impulse, steely indifferent woman, would impel any sacrifice or do murder rather than she should continue to I be bored. or rather than she should sub | init to any condition or circumstance that
 did not harmonize with her impulses or The play produced at the Montgom / Theatre last night by Miss Elita Proctur Otis and competent supporting com pany, gave local audience an oppor-
 tunity of studying and appreciating this great drama of character by the great l Norwegian.
 Ibsen Is undoubtedly a genius, the
 greatest draTnatist of modern times. but his art. at times, is so remorseless, so | pitiless. that 1t becomes almost repellant. | It is not the art of the sculptor He is | the surgeon in the dissecting room, who deeply, swiftly cuts away the outer beau ties of life. throws aside the tissues and | lays bare the heart, the lungs or the brains He is no poet to dream upon the
 botanist who sinks his trowel in the rich
 loam to bring to light the hidden roots which give life and sustenance to the plant above ground.
 dueed which did, not give rise to widely | divergent opinions as to its meaning. There are wide differences as to what l the dramatist seeks to teach. but his power is never underrated These diverg-
 ent opinions are like the widely differing views that are taken of life. and in this
 the fidelity, the truth of the great Nor His characters are not manufactured
 for the purpose of play. He does not | seek situations as situations. The great
 ness of his plays is shown in the way l the author keeps aloof from them. He does not project himself into the lines or the scenes. The characters are there
 natural. definite and tangible. They are impelled to go forward, not by the au-
 thor. by fate through their own unhappi-
 ness. which may be neither tnitigated nor
 avoided. It all seems fore-ordained from
 the beginning. The climaxes are not sought. for they come of their own ac- cord To the audience 1t tseems quite simple. There was no other way. but for those things to happen.
 But there is morbidness in Ibsen's work morbiness which makes the sunlight
 yellow and gartsh, and perhaps 1t Is not
 ta be denied that 1t Is thee morbiness 5f
 His Hedda Gabler is a searching, subtle study of thoroughly selfish woman, half a cat and half an idealist Her disappoint- ment in life is probably less appreciated by an American audience than by a Nor wegian gathering which could sympathize with her point of view. Still it is shown that those disappontments have met her at every turn, they have embittered her life, her journey with her weak and fool ish husband has become dull and hope less She becomes, in this disappoint-
 ment, an incarnate fiend to whom her husband is cipher and a thin-lipped cat tish creature, who can destroy without a qualm the life work of man she has loved because another woman inspired 1t;
 who has slowly built up his moral
 strength away from her; a woman who
 can give her old lover a pistol and advise l him to use it beautifully"
 Miss Otis handled the title role sYmpa-