The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-01

p~entine' dances. Other devices of light,
darkness, shadows and camera-thrown OBJ
jects produce a wonderful illustration of ac-
tuality. And Henry Irving proves that he
is an actor bigger than his mannerisms,
bigger even than his genius for stage
craft, by being never belittled in these
scenes.
Nathaniel G. Goodwin should no more be
carelessly called Nat He is now the
figurehead and centerpiece in the showiest
and c~ostliest presentation of "a Midsum-
mer Nights Dream in all the time since
Shakespeare gave it with no scenery at all
till the present splendors of pictorial art
on the stage. He plays Bottom, the
weaver, and the comic humor of his per-
Torrance is easily sufficient to save him
from being overwhelmed and obliterated
by the surrounding gorgeousness. His per-
sonality is as strong in a different way as
Irving's. Perhaps Klaw & Erlanger, after
| viewing the ornate beauties of their New
Amsterdam Theater, felt that something
amazingly spectacular must be done on
its stage at first, else the early audiences
might regard the house as the attraction
rather than it's dramatic contents. There
dix thO-O NhOt OloNAA5 OQ6h dn0lilNl dii
innovatory progress, complain against the
elaborate mounting of a Shakspearean play
as detrimental, because it overlays the
text with distracting sights; but 1 think
they are a mistaken minority. Frank Lee
Short is. or was, one of them. He hired
a theater last winter and revived Romeo
and Juliet in faithful imitation of the
original Elizabethan manner. except that
the women were not acted by boys. Few
paid any heed to the exhibition. Where
were those Shakspearean devotees who had
carped at modern mountings and longed
for the old-time simplicity? They let Mr..
Short lose every dollar that he put into the
experiment, and now he is running a dime
vaudeville hall, with six hourly perform
ances a day.
Shrewd as well as prodigal has been the
expenditure of capital in this superfine
ornamentation of "a Midsummer Nights
Dream" 1t has all the consciousness of a
feminine beauty show. No American ex-
travaganza has been more alluring with
troops of singing and dancing young
women. They are particularly lovely in
the fantastic guises of fairies, led by
Puck, Titania and Oberon. No English
Christmas pantomime has been more re-
plete with tricks of visual establishment.
The ASS head which is conjured onto
Bottoms shoulders winks, smiles, ways it's
ears. and is facially almost as funny as
Goodwin's own visage before and after it is
thus masked. These things are meant, no
doubt, to popularize the production, and
make il remunerative, but the spectator
is kept from carping at them, no matter
how aesthetically fastidious he may be. by
the good taste of the displays, by their
| subservience TO a true Shakspearean DUR
pose. and especially by the Mendelssohn
music, adapted and at some points extend
ed by Victor Herbert. Like q certain nos
trum advertised as trebly satisfying be-
cause its merits are three in one,' this
Shakspearean comedy is here made to
blend three qualities-good literature,
| dramatic art and carnal showiness.
What strikes New Workers first and
hardest in Kyrle Bellows appearance in
Rallies, the Amateur Craftsman" is that
he wears trousers. That is what he has
not done on the stage before in many
! years. So thoroughly has he been identified
with the cloak and sword drama that, when
he has walked Broadway In everyday
clothes, and his white hair ~unwigged. the
girls who dote on his picturesque romanti-
cism have not recognized him. No doubt