The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-04-02


creature of fiction. She requires 4
picture drawn with white ink on black
paper-a porcelain figure moulded from
Smutty anthracite-a SDrite Of purity
/ transformed from an imp of nastiness-
Virginia Harmed is an emotional act
rcSs with that professional desire fully
developed; and she is able to crafty
it, her husband being h II. Sothern,
with the courage and the cash 10
finance such a costly experiment as she
is making now with Jane Shore"
Some OF SOthern's work is visible in
the composition Of the play. too. as
we'll as his money in its production, al
though the writer's are Mrs Vance
Thompson and Mrs. Harry Z. Smith,
an authors wife and a playWrights
wife. who may have had their hus-
bands help. No matter if all the SOth-
erns, Thonpsons and Smiths did pool
thsir cleVerness in a collaboration, they
have not made a winSOme heroine OF
Jane shore 1t is in vain that they
| have provided an excuse for her deSer-
ton of her husband by making him
SOrdid old man eager to profit by her
shame. that they have palliated her
wantonness by turning her and Edward
~ into true lovers, and that they cause
her to die d martyr To his unfOund7d
jealousy. instead of placing herself with
one of her several subsequent para
mours, as the real Jane did, after the
king had chosen the second of his three
notorious concubines.
AS the drama of Jane Shore had
been tested in Philadelphia in its first
form, and in Cincinnati, st. Louis and
Chicago with amendments, and as only
a fortnight had been allotted to 1t IN
Broadway, our opening audience de-
served even more than usually to be
called the death watch. We watched
the promising birth, the waning life and
Z = sVO Of q n0af Oh
noting with cool interest each symp-
tom of its weakness, and taking calm
account Of it's final thrOeS of diSsoiu-
ton. Its fatal -malady. was thsatrltiS-
Jane Shore, as here brought into eX-
istence again. ~ a creature wholly of
the stage, and separated hopelessly by
the footlightS from her audience. She
begins with considerable vim, however,
as the unloving yet faithful wife OF a
| hateful old man who would sell her TO
| King Edwards hunChbacked brother
Richard. whom she repUlses indignant
| ~ and, being thrashed by her husband,
delivers herself to Edward, who has
wooed her respectfully, if not quite re-
| specially. in the disguise OF COM
mOner. So, when we see her at court,
wicked only in one way and truly SOOu
/ in all others. we don't despise though
we can't esteem her. The turning point,
| at which the play begins to decline
sharply. is where Edward, departing
with his army, cOnsigns his two niue
| boys to James care. We revolt mSuncr-
! lively at the Saint of the innocent chill
| dren cIinginG fbndly 10 a cOurteSan as
| to a mother 1t is right there and sud
/ denly that the case becomes one OF m
| durable theatritiS- The impulse of dis
/ sent almost of disgust, sweeps through
| the audience ViSibly. Jane mas some
/ pitifuI experiences after that as a sur
/ ferer from the CTuelties of both Ed
| ward and Richard, but she never re-
| gains a place in our sympathetic re-
gard
Yet it is not until the very last scene
that the Staginess of this drama be
! comes absurd enough to ridiculR Jane
! has been condemned to do penance as
J MagdaIene by following cross
| through the streets of London, wrap
| ped in a sheet and carrying a lighted
! candle For a fact it was Richard.
after his accession to the throne. who
/ punished his brothers degraded favor
tie in that way. and it had no fatal,
nor even a -reformatoFy, effect on her'
| for she continued in sin many years
| longer. But for a defenSible dramatic
! purpose the man she loves and Is loyal
J 70 turns hen. out to die in public dis
honor. Thus Virginia Harmed gets the
| chance to depict a death from heart
| break and she does 1t we'll 1t Is an
| error. however. so far as the effect on
/
| to end it all with a fall OF the actress
! IifeIesS in the center of the stage IN
| stead of that she totteTs off, we hear
| some one say. "She is dead" and then
| comes Edward. clad in armor, aStrlde
| a caparisoned charger, and across the
| horse before him lies a linn imitation
! of the plump Virginia. He delivers, "a
| Oratorically as the FESTIVE beast VIII
| permit a very florid appreciation OF
! the same woman he has killed so cruel
| ". but what has changed his mlnC
| about her he doesn't explain. and the
| climax is comic instead of solemn
In a new drama made by A. Z. Ian
| caster out of Leo TOlstOi's story OF
| anna Karenina." we have {, second
case of a play written for the manifest
purpose of providing role which some
/ purchasing actress might buy. and the
| product seems saleaOle. The incidents
! of the TolstOi never are utilized, but
! the characters are cOnventionallzed be
/ vOnd recognition. And, above all, the
ToIstoi spirit which vitalizes the book
| the analytical technique, the insight
| which none but u master NINA cOuiO
at once exercise and exploit. all com
| bined in one of the great hctiOnS of al
time. are absent in this dramatizatlon
II is like Tolstoi translated by Laura
Jean I.ibbey. Yet we need not beIlttle
! Lancaster, a scholar and poet, Tor ne
has written Il melOdrama of the French
school that ought to make a uuIIel
among young and tender hearts Wei
acted-which it was not in its first per
Torrance by a local stock company
il may live in the repeTtory of one OF
those stars who play IN "Camllle OF
| Monday. East Lynne on Tuesday
..Zaza'' on Wednesday. 'Frou Frou OF
/ Thursday and so on through week Ol
damp distress, tapping the tear tanks
of the public.
Each act has such climax as the
emotional actress dotes on. In one o.
these. Karenina's jealous husband is re
strained from striking her by the in
| formation that she is to become {
| mother to a babe of his fathering; II
| another she is led into an impulsiV'
| confession of her love Of a count by the
false report that he has been killed
| i'm a third. when she is living with thl:
| lover in Nenice-aS FrOu-FrOu did witt
| Andro-she ia impOrtuned by his moth
| er-as Camille is by Armand's fathe
| not to ruin her pdramour'S career bl
! remaining with him; but here Lancas
ter gives Tolstoi a chance, instead o
| sticking to Sardou and Dumas Ann;
| refuses to give UD her own happiness
| but goes back to her husband. not re
| pentant. but to demand either her chil'
| or the liberty TO marry the count TIL
| husband is in an ugly mood, and Il
! denying her appeal works himself int
| an apODletic state. a restorative Is a