The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-24

But Mr.. Fry shouldn't have been misled by
that 70 believe in the possible dramatic
efficacy of a doll which didn't even wall
Mamma when the parent squeezed IL to
her agoniZed bosom. There was a smoker
that and a laugh when. after she had
fled from home. a maid servant exclaimed.
"MiSsus has taken baby away and forgot
its bottler From that time on IL was hard
for the heroine TO hold attention closely TO
her sufferings, which were acute and pitt
PRISONS warden in tasmania, and she be-
came the too Informal wife or an Irish
political convict. theoretically John Boyle
O'Reilley. the famousN Fenian. She aided
him to escape to America, made pilgrim
age OF love TO join him here and when she
found him he had taken a second wife. in
the belief that his first had died. The pas
sages of real pathos in her case did not
count much against those which meant
nothing interesting.
Carlotta Nillson is one of those blonde
Swedes with taffy hair and cream skin who
would still look clean If they hadn't washed
themselves in year. She is not hig and
brawny, however. like most of her country
women but small and delicate. She had
acted several roles 50 tenderly and emotions
ally, with no forcing of voice or action.
that triumph was the forecast for her
as this accidental mother in Loves Pill
grimage." The prediction did not come
true. And the disappointment was due to
nerselt quite as much as TO Mr.. rry. Sne
ance but had been permitted TO have her
own way-which was to start with so much
sobbing grief that no crescenoo OF woe was
possible. 10 make all her points so very
slowly that even the best of them were
tedious and TO speak so naturally that few
OF her words were understood.
What are you talking about?" her stage
father asked
The question was in his role, but its
peculiar pertinence made Us laugh so that.
even II she had raised her voice to an
Swer, we couldn't have heard IL.
A serious line was similarly turned into
joke in this weeks matinee performances
of Ibsen's otherwise solemn Pillars OF
Society" Wilton Lackaye is a pet OF our
discriminate people who go to the theaters
with ideas of dramatic art in their minds.
We think him master OF the more rugged
forms of Characterization. When IL
announced that he would act the hypocrit-
zeal pillar in Ibsen's play of rotten society.
we had no reason to dread that he himself.
as well as the person he undertook TO por-
tray, would fall down with crash. But
he did. His performance was a surprise
with its lack of clear conception and facile
execution. Perhaps the consciousness that
he was disappointing an assemblage OF
Ibsenites drove the language out Of his
memory. but the impression given was that
he hadn't studied il.
az don't know what to say" he at length
exclaimed.
Those were Ibsen's words, but they were
so applicable to Lackaye's dilemma that we
increased his misery by laughing merrily-
To the detriment which Pillars Of Socie-
ty'' and Loves Pilgrimage" brought upon
Wilton Lack9ye and Carlotta Nillson may
as we'll be added mischances TO William s.
Hart and Guy Bates Post. actors who
usually fare pretty well. They had TO kiss
the heroine in the troubled course of her
pilgrimage of love. That OF itself would
have seemed to be a keen and sure de-
light, For 1 have said that Carlotta is the
incest sort of a blonde young woman and
looks particularly kisSable. And the play
wright's insistence upon realism. although
ii lapsed in providing a rag baby for her
TO have and TO hold, didn't permit of any
false pretense when her two lovers kissed
her. Hart had the first go at her. AS the
father of the rag baby he entitled to
her assent and she yielded herself TO pro-
fessional duty utterly. No kiss so sincere
and prolonged had been seen on our stage
since Olga Nethersole in Carmen" IL Is
usual with actors TO time their silences by
counting mentally till they reach the figure
previously agreed on at rehearsal. / should
say that Hart counted twenty, but IL may
have been thirty If he hurried the last ten
or fifteen. because by that time we were
snickering.
The other kisser of Carlotta was Mr..
Post as the sutton who was bound to marry
her in spite of all. Post is a self-poised
by what happened 10 Hart.
My God.' he cried when she had
spurned him. how / love that girl
He heard murmUr gleefully at that
but he went at her with desperate courage.
EMBODIED her in an embrace which must
have made her corset feel loose, pressed
his lips TO hers with force which bent her
head back till her neck seemed like 10
break and kept her so TO the end Of his
count. Again we Uttered. but that was no
low. Post backed away from Carlotta with
manifest relief that IL was all over But IL
wasn't. There was a chair right behind
him. He fell over II. We roared hlla-
riously. FRANKLIN FYLES. s.