The Indianapolis journal., 1904-04-24

A theatrical event of conspicuous brill
lance was the engagement at English's yes
terday of that foremost of American actors,
Richard Mansfield. Although there will be
three more dramatic performances of i'm
portance in indianapolis before the final
curtain of the season is lowered, the Mans
field engagement practically brought the
regular dramatic season to close. And
it was fitting ending to an unusually In
teresting season in this city, this engage
ment and the engagement six weeks ago
of Forbes Robertson, the distinguished
English actor. standing out prominently as
the truly great artistic treats of the local
theatrical year.
To see Mansfield in any play is to see an
actor who, having deeply reverential re-
gard for art and almost absolute disregard
for monetary reward, throws himself into
his work with unwavering determination
to attain perfection in every detail of his
performance. He may have his faults
what genius has not?-but surely there Is no
other actor on the American stage-and few
in all the world-so insistent upon aiming at
the ideal and so successful in attaining III.
Who but Richard Mansfield could play "Old
Heidelberg and Ivan the Terrible'-ex-
tremes in the art of acting-in one day, and
give the magnificent performances that
Mansfield gave yesterday afternoon ana
last night? The playgoers who witnessed
either one of the performances at Eng
lish'S yesterday were fortunate and those
who attended both performances Will treas
ure for long time to come an experience
that was in every way impressive
at the matinee, is best characterized as
comedy with a tragic motif. Mr.. Mansfield
himself has selected as the theme OF the
play these lines from the tirt act OF HAM
iet:''
HE may not, as unvalud persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice de-
pends
The safety and the health of the whole
state
And in these lines may be found the one
great heart-throb that quivers through this
very human story that is at once so ro-
pathetic. The young German prince, Karl
Heinrich, cannot permanently give up his
royal robes for the happier garb of his jolly
student days; cannot, by the nature or
things. hold the peasant girl, Kathie. TO
his heart throughout his life, as he had
done in the sweet springtime of youth; can
not remain young and joyous and content
instead of giving his attention to the
sterner duties of life, but must turn aside
once and for all from the very things that
have made life so we'll worth living. 1t is
the picture of the rOllicking Heidelberg
days-the days when all the world seemed
young for Karl Heinrich-that gladdens the
heart of the spectators and causes the
laughter to bubble to his lips, and then,
later on, it is the sad sweet wistful,
dreamlike picture of lost joys that brings
to the same hearts a strange tenderness,
while gentle tearS-nOt tears of bitterness,
but of the sweetest sorrow, in memory OF
what can never come back again-well up
into his eyes to make the closing scenes of
the play seem as IL they were partly OBJ
scured by a mist.
True human emotion is in every line and
every episode of this lovely play, which
| has been so we'll adapted from the original
| German of Wilhelm Meyer-Forster. No
| play-gOer can be too young or too old or
too deeply satiated with the theater not to
| enjoy it and to be greatly affected by the
| simple story OF the young German prince,
| who escapes from the fOrmalitieS of court
| life for a few blssful, golden, glorious
| months at Heidelberg, where he falls in
| love with a girl far beneath him in station
and is compelled, of course, to renounce
| this delicious love, to give up his dear
| friends and to become what he least wants
TO be of all things in the world-a lonely
| ruler of a principality. The little comedy is
| essentially German, and its atmosphere,
| in the Mansfield production, is German
| as extreme care, intelligent stage manage
| ment and artistic taste can succeed in
making it. Its pictures of rigid court life
are so graphic, its jolly Heidelberg scenes
! with their delightful student songs, sc
charming, and its touches of romantic
/ pathos so beautiful that one comes away
| from the comedy feeling that he has wit
| messed a well-nigh flawless performance
| Something of the true German spirit is
4 of course, sure to eVaporate from the
! American stage version of Herr Forster's
play, but this would only be noticeable
i TO people of the fatherand.
Mr.. Mansfield's portrayal of Karl Helm
rich was a vivid'y imagined piece of acting
and irresistibly compelling to the sympa-
| thies. Mature as this actor is intellectually
and physically, he gave performance
| which, by sheer force of his wonderful art
| created the most satisfactory illusion OF
| youth, with all of its passions and its JOY
] of living. He brought his complete mas
| terry of makeup and of Characterization
| forward in way that surprised even his
! strongest admirers. When he first came
| upon the stage his audience did not recog-
| nize him, so youthful did he seem, not only
| in appearance, but in every little manner
| ism. He merely a big, rosy-cheeke6
| boy. with no knowledge of the great worlo
| outside of his gloomy ca stle walls, but with
| heart all afire with eagerness to taste
| of the sweetness that the world has tC
offer to every one of its children. In the
| second act. when Karl Heinrich meets the
| winsome Kathie and is made acquainted
with the happygo-lucky life of the Heidel
! berg students, the actor disclosed splendid