The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-05-29

wan eye 10 see your show wild.
said an Irishman at a theater
Ik3I window on the Pike. IAN won't
yez let me in f'r half prfce?''
ITO this show with even eye."
said the fellow inside, lis worth double the
price of admission"
That was at the portal OF the Irish Ma
tional Theater. named for and sanctioned
by that Irish National Theater in Dublin
which presents the plays OF Yeats and his
coterie OF modern Irish authors. L went in
to see If anything was being done in the
Yeats way TO elevate the stage. 1 saw it
get an Irish hist. which is two steps down,
as the saying goes The Dublin Stock Com
pany didn't present a Yeats drama that
AFTERNOON, nor any other play save "Ker-
ry, the half-hour piece which that auda-
cious genius, Dion Boucicault. turned from
French into Irish and claimed as his own
original work He liked to act the faithful
old servant and it was regarded by many
as his best role; but here it was taken by
Luke Martin so exactly in Boucicault man.
ner that, really, there were no differences
that my memory could recall. All the rest
OF the show was genuine Irish singing of
Irish songs. dancing of Irish dances and
playing Of Irish harps and bagpipes 1t was
haved as though the ticket sellers words
had come true.
The Irish theater on the Pike-not the
1eats one In Dublin, for that has no house
" It's own ana gives performance only
once In while-has an auditorium to seat
thousand persons. It's walls are hung
with red, white and blue-also green and
with stars and stripes-also harps Over
the four boxes are the emblematic shields
Of Ireland's provinces of Ulster Munster
Connaught and Leinster. The one for
Irishman was pleased by the sight of it.
but he regarded MINISTER'S three crowns
with dlsfavoT.
isn't that right?" / asked.
Doomed If l think So" he replied.
Just then the curtain went up. an Irish
boy played Irish tunes Irish pipes and
TWO irish boys danced al Irish Jig A smile
drove the frown from the one-eyed Irish
mans face. and he began to get twice his
moneys worth The singers and dancers
had been made in Ireland. Their faces and
their broSue proved 1t. The men and boys
were ugly, without an exception, and the
women and girls as uniformly pretty.
There was one young fellow with a voice
which might make him, as a balladist ac-
tor. the successor Of Chauncey Olcott. if
his countenance were pleasant sight. The
male dancers were a half-dozen youths and
urchtns, at whose faees-let me call them
mugs, please--there was no pleasure in look
Ing But there We're no faults in their legs
or feet. How they did jig and liIt and do
all tho other things known to native Irish
dancing. They were strictly legitimate and
gfng. Scotch Keeling or American negro
shutting. The music for them was made
by single boy with bagpipes
And the colleens. oh, the colleensi The
one-eyed Irishman and 1 agreed that they
were delights TO our pair and half of OPP
tics 1t seemed to US that girl of four
teen or so, whose smile made dmples come
into her cheeks, and whose shy manner
seemed an apology for what her brislxy legs
were doing. was the uttermost in ideal
bogtrottefs-till another. few years older
and q, few points more roguish, sang for
US as well as danced.
+
The stage shows OF st. Louis in fair time
are to embrace. before June is over. two
big spectacles, illustrative of the Louisiana
purchase. various plays in Japanese, Chi
nese and other Oriental languages and
many minor things of theatrical nature
But nothing is likely to be more astonishing
than what Is done in the Irish National
Theater on Monday evenings. when it
ceases to be sordid and become uncommer-
cially literary with one or another of the
plays from the Dublin output of Yeats
and his high-browed coterie of poetic Irish
men, / have seen there the Pike-right
there on the gay and festive Pike dye
moind-the first performance of .sDeirdre''
outside of Erin That is the dramatic re-
writing In metre. by George Russell. of. the
ancient Drudc legend that King Conchobar
kept Deidre hidden from mans eyes, pri-
marily because Druid had predicted that
through the maiden the monarch's reign
would come to ruin and afterward be-
cause he lusted for her; that nevertheless
| she and the young warrior Naisi met loved
and fed away, that the elopement caused
warfare, the death Of the sweethearts and
the fulilment of the prophecy Myles
Murphy, director OF the Pike theater of
Irish song. dance and music. is a Gaelic
Scholar and 1eatsite. So he Yields his
stage once week TO a party of young
Irish men and women. who have come to
Iris Of
intellectual drama
These enthusiasts have scant skill in act
ing. although they had practiced at home
In the plays that they dote on, and what
they do Is amateurishly devoid of theatrical
art, but they are proficient elocutionists;
they nave been trained by the authors to
speak the lines meaningly and so they are
pleasureable TO listen TO IL not TO look at
They are QUILTED with the costumes and
properties used in Dublin and are quite
+ idsalistic when they stand still but dis
1liusfonary when they move about-exeept-
ing Dillon. who keeps TIE heroine graceful
all the while Now, all that gives good
satisfaction TO those who go into the Irish
theater advisedly on a Monday night. but
how does Il strike the visitors who come
down the Pike looking for fun? Well. it
Doesn't strike them at all. Ii misses thin
1ntorely.
Spain Is nearby Ireland In the geography
OF the Pike. but far OF metaphorically. The
Theater Espanola has a bull fight The
sienboards and pictures at the entrance say
The barker asserts it loudly. The ticket
seller afirms that 1t is true The people who
enter ought TO know better, yet many of
them plainly hope TO see the Spanish ma
tionaI sport in all verify They look around
for the arena only to find themselves I'm a
rather handsome little theater with a cur
01ned stage of size which, as common
sense tells them. can't be big enough TO
swing q bull on by his tail. Then they feel
foolish and resentful at having been so
easily taken In A Spanish orchestra OF two
guitars. two mandoiins and either 10 flip
out Spanish music and a flute. a clarinetfe
ana violin to blend and soften it. hardly