The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-03-05

E'OS@fAAAN-
The Threshold over which Mr. Haag
viii step into fame as a dramatist.
That was one of the short pieces
given this week in Frank Keenan's
New York imitation of Andre An
tones theatre in Paris. You have read
/ of Antoine's stage, on which he pro-
ouced all manner Of unusual PLAYS A
recent French disclosure of this kind
although not at that house, was an
acting version Of Edgar Allan Poe's
story, The System of DR.. Tarr and
Professor Fether,'' in which those two
Iunatics turned on the officers of an
asylum, took control of the place and
put a visitor through a frightening
demonstration of the Tarr and Fether
method OF treating insanity. Poe was
not a joker, and the scant h,rrnOr of
that tale was all grim. The French
play mad no humor of any kind, but
was altogether grueSOme with the hor-
rors which might come in the described
circumstances Paris likes 10 be i'm
pressed IN that way. Mr.. keenan, did
not test the question whether New
York would enjoy such an awful SEN
satlon- The play made by Henry TYR
rel and Arthur Horn blow was sug-
gested by de Lordes no doubt. but is
no more like it than it had to be il it
was to follow the Poe original at all
They locate the asylum across the
river from Gotham. The entrapped
visitor is state senator making a re-
formatory investigation. His encoun-
Ter with Tarr and Fether is facetious
and not very different in plan and
scope from the numerous American
tarceS thatthave turned madhouse mis-
cries to ridieule. Tarr is a solemnlv
d1gn1ted graybeard with his theories
OF dementia. Fether is more eccen-
trio while he describes, and makes
me senator try his curative feat of
lying from mantel across the room
10 piano A comedy girl has the de-
fusion that clothing ought to be worn
inside, instead OF outside, and she is
inclined to make the experiment with
her own gown. The only repulsive pa
tient shown is a grinning. leering
wretch, who serves the supper to the
imprisoned visitor with it's choice of q
beverage between nladiero and strych-
MA We hear the groans of the real
superintendent of the asylum. who is
being beaten into submission to n
coat Of tar and feathers off stage. bur
we are expected to laugh at that. too
~ 49, -
tract remunerative attention TO his
Antoine enterprise, although nothing
or the KIND has ever yet done we'll here
HIS theatre is a tiny one off Broad
way, but close to the Delmonico ana
Sherry corner of Fifth avenue, his
company 10 SiIldll, lnOuRn Suft1CIRntlV
capable. suitable plays are plenty at
low or no royalties, and so he can live
on moderate receipts. He is himself
an enthusiast in the matter OF dra-
matte are and literature, and an actor
with ample versatility for a variety of
roles. He was the burglar and the doc
tor IN the pieces described and In the
other one-a tragedy bv Arthur Horn
dow called THE StroIIing PLAYERS"
and based on Cartulli Mendes' 'sWo
man of Tabarin''-he was a 1nornte-
bank who, in a jealous phrenzy. sIavs
ms Wanton wife while an audience
thinks IT is all make believe. The same
story is told in the opera of 81 PagIiac-
CT" : . ii0O
=.
This is a week without a new PLAY
produced in the ordinary course Of
theatr1cal business. Last week we had
IlVe which were not art for arts "a ke
but merely commercial affairs with art
only incidental; and next week we
snail have four more of those sordidIy
introduced things, involving admirable
actors and authors in the dreadful
degradation Of the stage. Therefore
the pessirnists of last week, who viii
be pessimists again next week. might
well have tried to be optimists this
week Besides the Herne and keenan,
beacons of hope, we have had CLEANS
of promise from matinee performances
oy various uplifting societies. The
progressive Stage society gave Schnitz-
lers Filtration" in which a dis
graced girls lover is shot. and she is
so devoted to him that she goes and
dies on. his grave The Academy OF
Dramatic Arts presented Bjornstjerne
Bjornson's Marriage which sets
forth the familiar interferences of a
mother-in-law with her daughterS hus-
bands peccadildoes. The Century The
atre club exploited Cleveland Moffit and
Sydney Rosenfeld's "A Lesson for
Wives" in which a fascinating actress |
raises hobs with a husband and his
wife The Thalia Coterie performed in
German Goldasta's God, Man and the |
Devil in which the voice of Jehovah
is heard to make a wager with the |
visible Devil as to the evil ones abil-
fty to land a certain man in hell. The |
Devil plays a long, shrewd game to
win, and almost succeeds. This is
reverential play. though most Ameri- |
can Christians would regard it as
sacriligious. And we have had repeti- |
tions Of some of William Butler Yeats
Irish literary plays, given very expert
" at matinees by the Wycherly com
pany. Thus we've had range of I'M
commercial plays, from pretentious
worthlessness to genuinely peculiar
merit.
Even in vaudeville this week gives
us some dramatic art that is genuine. !
At one house I saw Archie Boyd with
only one assistant actor in a sketch |
that made my eyes leak. Boyd is a
counterpart of Denman Thompson, and !
you may have seen him play Thomp-
sons role in 1.-THE Old Homestead" |
without knowing it-for they do say
that Thompson sometimes gets va
cation that way. Boyd has just such |
a. part in After Many Years" in which |
quantity humorous rusticity is accom-
panied by the pathoS of an old farm |
er's longing for his wayward son and
h Gin Mo inW at the wanderers re-
turn. And if I hadn't gone to see
1.-cn,1Iar,lt haH.A seen CarINtta- J