Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-22

W theatrical season is on an estab-
lished footing Its approach has
been faltering and reluctant. But Mile.
Modiste" has caroled ecstatically and the
National Theater still echoes with the
blithe. though ncoherent. chirpings or
Peter Pan" There have been other fowl
but they proved to be spurious creatures OF
omen. nuttering Intellectually or mayhap
being ruthlessIy slain. These two are stall
wart harbingers The theatrical season Is
really here. The crowds at last turn from
the base bali bulletins, the golden leaves
rustic under our tread and the janitor turns
on the heat.
This Peter Pan" is described as a fan
tasy 1t is more: it is a nightmare. Yet 1t
Yields a weird influence horrible fascina-
ton Some people go TO see it again ana
again just as Father William in Lewis Car
rolls rhyme insisted standing on his
head Having discovered, after one ex-
perience that 1t does not injure the BRAIN
there is a morbid desire for repetition of
the dizzy sensation. You are a ntue re-
sentful at first, but after awhile you drop
your chin open your eyes wide and resign
yourself to a state of mesmeric bliss, won
dering vaguely when Prof. trohman, or
whoever il is that gives the seance, will
consciousness by swapping his fingers in
your ear and saying Right! And among
the varied and persistent affronts to pre-
conceived notion there is none more en-
phatlc than the appearance of Maude
Adams herself-fragile pathetic Maude
Adams who seemed each moment liable to
fade away as some delicate wild flower
drops its petals in the passing gust. Time
was when the suggestion that she play
Rosalind or Viola would have seemed
Internationally sarcasm. But now, so far
as appearances and robust endurance are
concerned she might play Mazeppa! or
all the strange and unusual impressions con-
veyed by the performance, the appearance
of the star herself Is the most striking.
Maude Adams the eerie and unsubstantial
Lady Babbie-the incarnation of hectic
pathOs as L'AiglOn-now plump and pranc
ing in boys clothes and hauled about the
stage by alleged invisible wire in an
aerial ballet. There is no fault to be found
because the wire is not truly invisible. Let
the wire be a cable and let the waistband to
which It Is attached be of stout fabric.
Miss Adams. robust though she now seems,
is too valuable to be tumbled about pro-
miscuousy A description of the episode
sounds undignifed But Miss Adams is so
exquisitely sincere with it all that her own
acduiescenCe in the transaction is all that
is necessary to make it seem quite legti-
mate and correct
Why Maud Adams IS a great actress IS
one of the problems that battle. She has
never done any of the things that are GUS
tomarily regarded as the formal and essen
tial preliminarIes of professional greatness.
She has never shaken the sins of our an
cestors at us In Ibsen play. nor Invited
us 10 splash about and spatter our finer
feelings in mucky little problems. She has
never assumed the stern patronage Of high
art and dosed us with G. Bernard Shaw on
the ground that it was good for us, whether
we liked It or not For her literary inspira-
ton she selects the imponderous ]. NJ
Barrie whose fancics are light as thistle
down. and are sometimes followed with
near as much difficulty. But Barrie is an
ideal author for one of Miss Adams mildly
mystical personality. Both somehow
apart from the rumble and whirl of the
commonplace world He has managed to
keep his pages admirably free from the
smart smlrchiuess which literary London is
inclined to affect. Barrie always writes
with nice. clean ink, albeit occasionally of
a rather pallid violet hue,
*
peter PAN is liable to develop a patho-
logical Importance Physicians instead OF
giving a patient bromides to settle his
nerves may tell him to go see Peter PAN"
1t is the person who has seen everything
and read everything that enjoys the play
most It is good for that blase feeling.
But there Is danger of its becoming habit.
1t should be prescribed for highly organ
lied and susceptible people in discreet
doses an act or two at a time. Perhaps
It may develop into a great reformatory in
huence. Why daily with absinthe frappes
or bubblng vintages when you can go to
the theater and "see things" without risk
of mental or physical damage? Monte
Cristo in his strangest drug dreams behe!d
nothing to compare with Peter Pan" Can
nibus Indica" in all Its jagsome repertory
contains nothing welrdl ygrotesque. 1t
has remained for Mr.. Barrie to achieve
what chemistry could not accomplish and
produce the headacheless Authorization.
There is no use trying to disguise it; the
minstrel show is not what II used to be.
Its traditions have faded Its songs are of
Thompson street and not of the cotton
field; Its dances are gymnastic exercises
and its mirth is but a hollow echo of the
past. When the Ministries used to come to
they really were, living In their own world
of melody and Jest improvident as butter
flies But the spirit OF commerclalsm has
swept over minstrelsy. The parade at :45
Is no longer a jaunty promenade of high
steppers. 1t Is a dull Flooding from one
given point to another per agreement with
the management. And each performance
looks and sounds like a days work. The
individual fortunes for fancy performers
are no more. There no youngsters III
the ranks of mnstrelsy who promise anoth-
err Billy Rice or Carl Rankin or Billy
Emerson. II a black face performer were
20 come to the footlights and declare he felt
Just as happy as big sunfiower a lot OF
us would merely wonder If he came from
Kansas.
4
Wilton Lackaye has made the mistake of
having himself interviewed as professional
wit; this in the face OF Chauncey NJ De-
pew's sad fate. 1t is not actors place
to he x.-{ft ha hea