The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1904-10-16

read Phrases were not paraphrased
merely, but parodied. Pauses waited
too often upon the prompter not upon
sense Emphasis fell where il would, not
Were II should. Rhythm was lost,
thought obscured. And all this, be il
noted, occurred amid stretches Of ex-
oulsite reading, at times inspired and
all but always distinctive. Most pal
pably and unpardonably it was the re-
suit Of hasty- and uncareful rehearsal,
and in the circumstances almost i'm
pertinent.
An 'twere Hamlet las when Bur-
bage played" it with sweet Will as
the ghost. Mr.. Greet has here too
faithfully played the imitator, like the
wise Oriental who put patches on the
new trousers because the old ones given
To him for pattern were patched. But
nay. Curtains they had not in Bur-
bege's day, nor any of the gorgeous
obscuring trappings, but if 1 know my
poets, they had the word, the radiant
word. just upsprung from its glorious
soil. Otherwise one can well imagine
cracked crowns in their strenuous stage
direction.
And now here is what Mr.. Lewis
thinks Of us. He may be right. 1t is
point Of view and extremely interest
ing. But, as 1 have before said, it
leaves one of the three thousand un-
convinced. He says:
To see the play came three thousand people.
more less the weakest part OF the whole
Spectacle They were people Of the most un-
doubted respectability. the fine flower OF our
population. well dressed decorous and unre-
sponsive- They were. many OF them, fit sub
5tcts TOT clinic. FOR they were diseased to
the soul OF them sick with the maladies OF
selI-consCiousness and sham culture. one coulG
see where the university had accomplished its
homicldal work and had successfully murdered
the emotions Too old and too clever TO be
interested IN the action Of the piece too III
over their miserable texts Tor an the World as
II they were listening TO some instructor Civ
Ing them points with regard 10 his opinion OF
Professor Smiths opinion OF the Herr Doctor
tSauers) opinion Of the text OF the third line
OF the second scene OF the first act. as sug-
gested by Professor Stumpfwasser.
1t was a refreshing delight to hear a little
hoy exclaim on the fall Of the wicked King.
I am - glad, just the interested vii
many times. no doubt Why on earth people
should 90 and sit in the open air in order 10
be provided with amusement and possibly in
struction Ohis for the benefit of the university,
for, OF course. the main object in life is that
we should be instructed by a company OF
players who have made special study OF
fH4i- = r. sfo,,I5 c1ose -bst- 60 = 80
lures their ears To the beautifully moduated
voices and gluing their gaze TO their text
books. be gravely satisfied TO discover that
the actors did not know all their linesEaii
this is Just 50 much mystery TO the writer. and
cannot be accounted for on any other grounds
than lack o. artistic taste
It is, by the way, a subtle criticism
Of the performance that there were
those able TO give their eyes to the
book during its progressl
AS a pianist said when List animal
verted on his playing: But you did not
hear me. You went TO sleep"
That was my criticism" said List
And now the audience Of interested
villagers" otherwise Oaklanders, that
I had the happiness to see at another
Hamlet" performance the week fol-
loving. incidentally l saw another
Hamlet that / had long heard Of
used 10 be an Oaklander myself, and it
was a cold week when one heard moth
ing Of the pride Of the Dewey" Lam
ders Stevens. Particularly Of his Ham
let one heard. and last week but one in
a voting contest at the Liberty play
house Hamlet" with Mr.. Stevens. was
chosen by overwhelming majority. The
same voting contests are a most inter-
esting feature Of the Liberty's manage
ment by the way. Once a month for
week the audiences are allowed 70 vote
upon a play to be produced, choice of
six or seven Of the standard plays be-
ing given. Here is the list from which
Hamlet was selected:
Hamlet, a tragedy Of love and
madness; Macbeth a tragedy of wo-
mans ambition: 'OthelIo a tragedy of
love and jealousy; King Lear a trag-
edy Of flial ingratitude; Richard Ill
the tyrant, murderer, lover, king Jul
ius Caesar a tragedy Of mans ambi-
ton; Romeo and Juliet tragedy of
love-
Hamlet" they chose. and Hamlet"
with Mr.. Stevens. I went to see, just
week after the university edition Of the
play. There wasn't a textbook as far
as eye could reach and there was the
matinee girl and boy, for a large part
Of the audience. 1t is to be owned il
was refreshing. They were there for
the play. Laughs, tears and signs
greeted the story. They were palpably
neither too old nor too clever to enjoy
the action of the piece and they were
entirely refreshing. The performance
was distinctly creditable. 1t did not
purport to be Shakespeare a Ia Bur
base, but plain, everyday, CONNER
cial Shakespeare, with a green-Iit
ghost and more or less convincing