Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1904-02-17
GREAT THEATRICAL EVENT
J. II. STODDART IN BONNIE BRIER BUSH"
The Highest Priced and Very Best Drama.
tic Company Ever Seen in DecOrah
Booked for Next Monday Night.
The House Will be
Crowded.

Lovers of the play in Decorhs.hail
with delight the announcementTth
rhe managers of the Grand have-suc-
ceeded in booking for next Monday
evening the great dramatic actor, Mr..
j. II. Stoddart. in beside the Bonnie
Brier Bush." For some time they
have heel negotiating for the engage
ment OF this great company, andsnow
that they have succeeded they feel
that il is imperative that our people
show their appreciation by filling the
Grand TO it's capacity. The produc-
tion is the highest priced and hest
dramatic Offering ever secured for the
Grand, and is rather in the nature of
an experiment. 1t is up to the people
of this section to make the event a
successful one. That everyone who
attends will bo delighted is without
doubt, for the fame of Mr.. Stoddart
and his great company is universal.
The following from the Seattle. Wash.
Daily Times gives us some idea of
what we may expect:
"The Bonnie Brier Bush is the
same splendid show that it was last
year, and that made every one who
witnessed it then vote it one of the
finest dramatic entertainments that
one had ever seen. The art 'of James
Fl. Stoddart at 76, rings as true as it
did at 10 indeed, the old man seems
to be stronger and younger than on his
former visit. The artistic value of
his work is inestimable, and not over
looking the superb achievements of
Richard Mansfield in the same time,
StoGdart's Lachlan Campbell in ''The
Bonnie Brier Bush" is by all means
the greatest character creation given
to the American stage within the
decade.
The play opened at the Grand last
evening for nine performances, before
a big audience, which was intensely
sympathetic and which laughed and
cried by turns just as all its audiences
have done. James Mac cArthur's drama
tization admirably preserves the at
mosphere Of the MacLaIen stories, and
has both strength and coherency when
considered as a play alone. The bigotry
of the Scottish elder Is painted with
side of the story is fortunately Offset
by some of the Quaintest and most de-
lightful comedy imaginable. Aside
from the towering character of Lach-
Ian, the play rather tends to lightness
and gayety, and its personages are
written in this lighter vein.
All that could possibly he said in
praise of j. Fl. Stoddart has been said
again and again by the newspapers OF
America. By the theatre -goers of the
country he is regarded with the most
sincere Affection, by the profession
which lie has honored and uplifted for
forty years he is revereDced, by his
company and those who know him
as a man he is loved His splendid
vitality at his advanced aged is tri-
bute to life morally pure and stain
less; his stage success is the natural
inheritance of decade after decade of
the most Through stock training in
the great companies which were the
most famous exponents of that lost
branch of stage art.
For Lachlan Campbell, his own
face, so tull of rugged str, ngth. and
his snow white hair, render any make
up at all a dctraction, and he uses
none. SO terrible Is the picture of
his wrath when he turns his daughter
from his house, that the resentment
of the audience against him is most
fervid, but it turns TO melting pity on
the curtain call. when the anguish of
tie father leads him to place the
candle in the window in the hopes of
the girls return. There was no dry
eye in the house then. The folding
of the little child in his arms in the
next act is another pathetic bit, and
the character picture is completed at
the reunion of the Campbells at the
plays conclusion. Stoddarts work at
all points is Incompatible.