The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-20
TWENTY MINUTES OF HE'LL
THAT FEATURE OF STEPHEN PHIL
LIPs's PLAY MOST STRIKING.
other Plays ON New York Stage Make
ImpressiOn-Drew's Captain Di-
eppc--Two Temperance Lessons.

Correspondence of the indianapolis Journal.
NEW YORK. Sept. 1S.-The theatrical
stage of this town has an access of dignity
this week. Up TO Monday not serious
new play had been brought to Broadway
this season. but on that evening stephen
Phllips's dramatic poem on Homeric
theme. Ulysses was introduced impress
sively. I suppose that a reasonable portion
of its first American audience was appre-
ciative of the composition. which is in pre-
tentous metre running once in while into
rhyme. What / am sure of is that the
visions of hell were gazed at with shudder-
ing interest by the entire assemblage The
scenery is the same that Beerbohm Trees
experts made for his London production.
Such an exhibition would not have been
possible before electricity was utilized in
stagecraft. The painted canvas represents
simply in sombre hues the rock sides and
roof of a subteranean place. These sur
faces are never more than dimly visible.
The lighting is altogether in spots when
ever and wherever needed for weird effect.
Thus Ulysses, who enters by an aperture
way up at the top, is kept in sight by
reflected illumination which hardly extends
beyond his figure and which follows him
throughout the act in his slow descent to
the bottom of the awful cavern. The story
of the play. as YOU may already know from
reading the published book. is that Ulysses
was enthraled by Calypso and held long,
passonately willing captive on her island.
until the friendly Minerva induced Jupiter
to break the spell and permit him to return
to Ithaca and his wife Penelope. The con-
dition of his release is that he shall journey
l.; of hall xNh he
has to witness the tortures Of the damned.
The theology of long ago has been adhered
TO by Mr.. Phillips. Troops of women who
are there because they have committed
suicide and infants foreordained to eternal
torture, tread the steaming ground. float
in the hot air and wall dreadfully. At in
tervals some famous convicts in this awful
prison, such as Agamemnon and Prone
theus. are suddenly illuminated into view.
one after another, and each tortured in the
manner described in the ancient legends.
This illustration of hell lasts twenty min
utes.
The opening night was extrinsically in
teresting by reason of Rose Coghlan aud
Tyrone Power. and not because the one
did we'll as Penelope and the other as
llNSSeS. DUt ONluS W tiitii
Many of the old-timers present recalled
Miss Coghlan as having once held fond
place in the wallack succession of brilliant
leading actresses, but for many years she
has been away from Broadway, and she
was welcomed tremendously. Finally, she
wept with real tears Mr.. Power is one of
those actors who usually disguise them
selves unrecognizably in the characters
they assume, and are therefore unknown
personally to their audience. There had
been a lawsuit to decide whether he might
quit Minnie Madden Fiske's company to
accept a Frohman engagement in "Ulys-
ses;" so, for the first time he found HIM
self thoroughly advertised to the public.
And he seemed to have seized the oppor-
tunity to introduce himself he really is.
He wore no beard, as Mr.. Tree did in Lon
don, but showed his bare face, and he en-
ployed no mimicry in voice or action, but
played the part straight" as the actors
put It In this disclosure of himself he
reminded me much of John Mccullough.
XXX
John Drew says he will never again pre-
tend to be young on the stage. He will
enact lovers, but they must be well ma
tured in years and experience, and not
callow fellows in their first experience with
women Moreover, they must have other
characteristics than sexual ardor. and have
other things to do than the hot pursuit of
sweetheart. Captain Dieppe," which he
has brought out this week, provides a
Frenchman who is not labeled Warranted
a good man. but readily twists truths into
lies, takes questionable means of making
money and does not hesitate much to make
love to a woman whom he believes to be
a friends wife. That is the kind of rea-
sonably selfish hero that Bernard Shaw
has written several times in vain efforts
to make the public accept him. 1 think the
authors of Captain Dieppe," who are
Anthony Hope and Harrison Rhoades. have
succeeded. The material to start with
was a whimsical novelette, by the author
of 1.-The Prisoner of zenda.''
Mr.. Rhoades is an American from Chi
cago. He obtained the privileges of basing
| a comedy on Hopes narrative. and offered
the resulting composition to our managers
without avail. At length he went to Eng
land to talk with Mr.. Hope about it, And
here comes in chance to take your choice
| what to believe. Did Mr.. Hope merely
attach his name to the play? Or did he
Anthony Hope and Harrison Rhoades'' was
| brought back to New York and accepted
| by Charles Frhoman for use by Mr.. Drew.
| The gleeful point in this for unrecognized
| playwrights is that the manuscript had
previously been rejected by Mr. Frohman's
| reader and was not accepted by Mr..
| Frohman himself. don't think we have to
know how much, If anything. Mr.. Hope
added to Mr.. Rhoadess play in order TO
see the good and sufficient reason why it
| vas at first declined and afterwards accept
| co in the big Frohman establishment. Mr..
Drew is understood to have a deciding
voice as to the parts he shall take up.
He saw in Captain Dieppe a serio-comic
| person who might be entertainingly diff
ferent from the heroes Of modern life
whom he portrayed. And he was right.
XXX
There can be dispute that considera-
BILE of the matter in Captain Dieppe' is
| by Mr.. Hope, as ii was taken from his
novelette,. The captain fees from France.
where he has been hired inciter of plots
against the republic. across the border
into Italy, where he is invited to be the