Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-10
The London Theater.
From a STAFF Correspondent.

LONDON. September 4. 1905.
One is rather inclined to counsel American
playgoers to look out for reviews of the
new play which Forbes Robertson Is get
ting ready to produce in London. for 1t
seems likely to prove out of the ordinary
In which case congratulations will be in Or
der, this actors luck of late having been
distinctly bad. His production of The
Light That Failed" though moderately sue
cessful here was not liked by American au-
diences. Then London frowned on The
Edge of the Storm. which Forbes Robert
son brought back with him from the united
States, and almost as chilly reception
seems to have been melted out to Love ana
the Man." the Esmond piece which he trieo
on his latest tour In America.
There have been reports from the inside
however, that "Morven," the four-act
play is called with which Robertson will
open the new Scala, was believed by every
one who had read it to be work that
might be expected to make something OF
sensation on both sides of the water. This
piece whose author prefers to remain
anonymous for the present, Is likely to be
renamed THE Conqueror' when produced
at the Scala on September 16. and it is a ro-
mantle drama in blank verse.
Il have every Intention said Forbes Rob-
ertson when seen at the Scala yesterday,
In the United States If it fulfills my hopes
here. And l may say that these are very
high indeed. The story of the play. which
Is medieval. Is one of beauty and real
power. The Conqueror' is a captain OF
war, who has swept through the country
wire fire and sword. Rapine and lust have
had full play. But just as the drama opens.
the Conqueror feels that he Is beginning to
tire of such victories, and when he sees the
young daughter of the chieftain whose
stronghold he has just captured who is, in
deed, the one living thing left in the castle.
he feels more than ever the emptiness OF
- AT, he A,.@ OF he fc only rh
He will go away for eight years and then
will return to claim her for himself.
so the Conqueror goes, but in the mean
time. some years afterward another comes
to her, one strangely like the Conqueror;
yet, indeed, he is no conqueror, but the con-
quered-fying from the sword of the ever
victorious captain. But Morven thinks 1t Is
the other. She listens to him and loves him.
And when the Conqueror returns, bringing
her captive kings and princes and the
wealth of the world in jewels to lay at her
feet, he finds that the prize he had denied
himself for eight long years has fallen to
another.
THE successful wooer is condemned to
die, but Morven wins his life from the Con-
queror at the price of herself-she is ready
to give herself to her master. But the Con-
queror conquers himself at last; he spares
her lover and destroys himself. Then a
miracle happens-which, however, 1 am
keeping a secret for my first night audience.
The play ends interrogatively and the
whether he has not, in winning, lost ALL;
whether the Conqueror, in dying has not
won that which, living, he could not gain
the love of the woman.
II am to play the Conqueror." said Mr..
Robertson land my wife, Miss Gertrude Ell
lott. will be the heroine, Morven, while for
the young lover have engaged Henry Aim
ley. who made SO great success as Paolo
in Phillips play of 'Paolo and Francesca,
and who scored another success in Gang
willis piece, Merely Mary Ann
Tempted by the uncommonly pleasing ex-
perience of his friend, w. w. Jacobs. whose
''Beauty and the Barge Is being done in
the United States by Nat Goodwin this sea-
son, Arthur Morrison is the latest British
novelist to go into the playwrting business.
Like Jacobs, Morrison will begin by putting
some of his own stories on the stage, the
first of which will be Cunning Murrell."
This story novel readers will remember.
was singularly unlike its authors earlier
works, The Child of the Jago" and Tales
of Mean Streets'-its scene being laid in
rural England and its hero being a sort of
modern sorcerer, a wizard and charlatan,
who gets living by selling charms. love-
philtres and so Cyril Maude, who has
Just left the Haymarket to go into man.
agement on his own account has commits
stoned the dramatization of Cunning Muir
rell." If it succeeds there is a possibility
that Morrison may try his hand at a stage
version Of his detective story. The Red
Triangle"