The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-30
hrs. FISKE ASA PLAYWRIGHT,
PRESENTS THREE ONE ACT
PLAYS; TWO VERY INTERESTING.


wright yesterday afternoon at the Man
haitian by producing, with the aid Of her
very remarkable company, three one act
p,ays They revealed the same admir-
able intelligence and rightness Of feeling
which have 80 long been valued in her
acting together with an unmistakable
dramatic gift. She did not appear in
the PLAYS II Is said that she hopes TO
te encouraged 70 give up regular acting
and devote her main strength to manage
inent. The enthusiasm OF the audience
was long and loud, and in the end called
her twice before the curtain. in spite Of a
previously expressed resolve not to APP
pear Making the allowance for an OBJ
Niously friendly bias OF the audience, the
occasion was little short OF triumph.
The first play The Rose was the
weakest IL was wholesome and sym
pathetic, though somewhat sentimental,
version OF the familiar story Of the old
husband, the youthful wife and her lover
the miieu of which was aristocratio life
. IN New Orleans The young people in this
case were proof against temptation, the
wife. Mdrie remaining faithful and de-
votedly afectionate and the lover, Fred
euck, the husbands physician, being
virtuously resolved TO fee from the impend-
ing ENHANCEMENT. Frederick sent a rose
10 Marie with a note bidding her farewell.
The husband read the note by mistake, and
ended his life with an overdose Of medi-
cine.
The machinery by which the plot Is
evolved will hardly bear analysis Re
formed Partisan rake that the husband was,
he was preternaturally obtuse to what
was going on. The audience learned all
there was TO know from circumstances
that did not arouse his least suspicion.
And there was a very palpahle touch OF
aentimentality in his self-secrifce.
Mr.. Arliss scarcely made the husbands
age and his feebeness convincing, and
lessened his grip of the situation by an eX-
nggerated deliberation In acting 1t must
he said, however, that at the curtain many
in the audience were in tears. The one
admirable performance Of the piece was
the old French servant of Etienne GiTardot,
which was by far his best achievement
in several years--simple gay and true.
He sang a French song with delightful
JUNCTION.
A Light From St, Agnes is a grewsome
tragedy OF low life in a Louisiana river
village The scene il the interior Of a
stone hut in which dwell Michel a drunken
r,mseler. and 'Toinette a young woman
living with him. A sanity young woman
has reformed the rest Of the community
and banished the traffic in rum, but Michel
and 'Toiuetic are only the more reseniully
Obdurate.
When the play opens the reformer lies
dead in neighbOring chapel. In the
midst of a very realistic thunder storm
Father Bertrand comes into the hut and
IN -. L. atV,sv vfriah vuga
for her conversion. 'TOinCue, who has
been walked from drunken sleep, sho We
only a brutal defiance. Michel comes IN,
also drunk, and also in a passiono Of hatred
against the dead saint, lie has seen the
body lying in the cha pei, and on the breast
q dia mond cross. lie resolves 10 steal
the cross, and make way with il. ToiHeite,
who has been more deeply moved tEuh
she knew, opposes him, and ngs the alarm
10 arouse the village. Michel slabs her
and, washing the blood from his hands,
makes away through the forest.
The atmosphere OF the play is as brutal
as page from Cork. A touch Of beauty
there is in the idea of the spirit OF the dead
saint living on to reclaim the soul Of
'ToiHettc. But the sodden woman's re-
generation Is not very convincingy denoted
In the writing 80 that the total effect Is
some what sordid and revolving There
can he no doubt however, that the interest
in the piece was absorbing. The curtain
il a very original BIT of theatric manipu-
lation. 'ToiReite has put her bed out IN
the centre Of the room 50 that the first
rays of the sun, reflected from the window
Of the chapel will strike in her eyes and
awake her in time to rouse her drunken
man In time for his days work. A Michel
fees the dawn IL breaking, and when he
has gone the rehecte rays Of the sun swing
across the room and full In 'TolDete's
The 'Toinettc Of the young Rumanian
actress, Fernando Eliscu, Is the most
etnkngly real and effective bit q work
+ It's kind seen in many a day; Beaul-
ful In face and figure, she is full OF emo
tional strength and color. Her Julet two
years ago in Frant Lee Shorts aTcheOlogic
production at the Berkeley Lyceum showed
crude promise; and once as the heroine
81 sSIaTtt of the Lowlands,' in which she
replaced Corona Ricardo in the last week
Of the run she made an impression OF the
first magnitude on those who saw her
IL will be strange II Miss Ellscu does not
soon achieve a high place in her art. The
Michel of John Mason was a creation OF
compelling realism and dramatic power
brutal reckless, vicious, and very dirty
in face and habit. As Father Bertrand,
that admirable young actor W, b. Mack
was fOrcible and effective
The mos. sympathetic and yiable OF the
plays waG "The Eyes Of the Heart, which
Mrs. Fiske has made from two act Italian
pieoe by Gallina. IL Is family comedy,
iull Of humor and sentiment, which centre
about blind grandfather whose fayorite
son has ruined him and whose family Is
keeping him in ignorance OF the fact by
many fond devices. The character OF the old
man D'ARcelyt-his tenderness, his Crusu-
ness and the keen resource by which he
unmasSs the receptions practiAed on him
is conceived with the most appealing
divination and gives rise 70 an abundance
II effective dramatic touches Even tie
grabbed old GTdsset who has broken of
the, match between his son to the blind
D'Ancelots granddaughter, because OF her
poverty, finds his heart melting and unites
the lovers.
Mr. Ariiss's impersonation Of the grand
father l. a creation Of the utmost finesse
and feeling and admirably contrasted
with the cruel and degenerate types with
which he has been mainly identified No
doubt remains that Ar. Arises powers
are as versatile as they aIc intense. hr.
Mack also gives evidence Of eNtraor--
binary versatility in portrait OF an old
servant reduced 20 the poorhouse-a crea-
ton remote as the poles from his Schrdm
and his TesmdH. Miss Emily Stevens, as
the granddaughter. was charming 70 look
at, and often sympathetic, but lacked
lew requisite touches Of suppressed emo
ton for her lover One or two Of the parts
i 80