The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-15

human symbolism, simple ard dire ct. Nine.
Guilbert acts it all out with a rhythmical
swaying OF the body and limbs that amounts
to a dance-the killing Of the lads mother,
the pluckirg out Of her heart as she lies
PROSTATE, the journey to the mistress, the
lads stumblirg z, the fall of the heart on
the ground, and the faint, sad voice of the
dead mother crying up to her son In I'M
swerving tenderness,
The songs of her initial recital hardly
evinced her full tragic power. Perhaps
this was due to the act that the audience
catching at a double entendre which did not
eyist, turned the first of her serious pieces
to ribald laughter. She sapg ia Glu at
a subsequent recital. Its appeal was in
slant and powerful. There never was a
less pretentious tragedy than this little
song OF three stanzas, but by the same
token there never was an effect of the
theatre more poigpantly heartrending and
haunting. The secret of 1t, l believe, is
that the action is reenforoed-made possible
In fact-by a plastic rhythmic grace which
is that Of an Attic chorus.
All this, you will say, is as alien to the
tndwelling northern temperament as 1t lie
natural to the expressive Latin. When
Cyrdno de BerQer1c throws his purse to the
bad actors Of the Hotel de Bourgogne we
smile at his triumphant What a gesture. y
and, remembering that he has parted with
his last sou, say with lie Bret, "Quelle cot
tisei' Wagner, according to Mr.. Hender-
son, wrot' his choruses for such plastic
Interpretation as Greek dancers might have
given, but found this impossible with tine
actual material at hand.
The capabilities Of our public in the
art OF the dance is evident enough in ny
musical comedy. In Mile. Modiste" Miss
La Mora walks across the stage on rigid
toes, and is recalled again and again, while
her attendant quartet of dancers trip with
real grace and inspiring bodily exuber
ance-and are ignored. Bessie Clayton's
extraordinary acrobatic agility evokes
transports from people who never realize
that she has unusual natural grace and
deserves a better fate. Maude Adams
throws into her pillowcase dance in Peter
Pan" all the charm of boyhood. which,
like all things poetic, never grows up
and Is told that she must not try to be a
dancer.
1t is all very sad, but there is conso-
lation. There are enthusiastic audiences
" nllb5 ~. oOlllb thohBi hiAtO - heAA
Der. AS for Nine. Guilbert, her limit is
not yet reached, and this week she is to
give Mr.. Proctor's vaudeville audiences
a taste Of her quality. 1t may not be wise
to expect much from the experiment.:
but clearly the ten years since the failure
of Miss Duncan nave not been without
gain.
II any one wants to see the difference
between good farce and bad ne has only
to 20 to "It's All Your Fault" at the Savoy
and then to "Charley's Aunt at the Man
haitian. The new piece, to adapt Macau-
lays phrase, has all the contortions Of the
clown without the clowns inspiration.
II there is a single bit Of original character
drawing it is the runaway boy, Archibald.
For the rest the play is a mechanical
re adjustment of long familiar material.
-Charley's AUNT" is. in its main outlines,
scarcely less familiar. and its mechanism
is not always concealed; but it has a very
large measure OF the ~spontaneity of i'm
pulse which is the essence OF art In all it's
forms.
Little Bdbs, the amiable and browbeaten
lordling, is conventional al enough, perhaps;
but his is a convention founded upon original
observation, and not, like the jealous and
Intriguing lOIh VI tHC pow o. ShS Sa'oyr
the mere creation of the farce writer neces-
sites. The scene in which this supposed
old gentlewoman Is caressed and kissed
by two girls has its obvious and hackneyed
side; but there is something in the inherent
sweetness Of Bdbs that makes it plausible,
even sympathetic; and the business is 80
carefully managed that the most squeam-
ish delicacy could scarcely be offended.
Much fresher and funnier is the scene in
which Bdbs is in terror of the stories the
women start to tell while the men are post
prandially roaring in the dining room;
and it is carried of with equal discretion.
Even the minor characters are essentially
true and sympathetic. The real aunt from
Brazil, wher re the nuts come from, has the
adroitness, the poise and the good humor
of the woman of the better world; and the
old man who makes love to Chdrleg's sup
posed aunt for her supposed fortune is
redeemed by the fact that he does it for his
sons future, and is honestly glad when the
old lady rejects him.
As Bdbs Etienne Girardot tends. as he
often does, toward mechanical overelabora-
ton and mechanical speed; but in all essen
tials he is in full sympathy with the under
lying spirit OF the character and is deli
ciouslv, boisterously amusing. He ever
manages, in the scene with the young girl
he loves, to command real sympathy and
admiration for his tenderness and his
delicacy. Now. as always, this is one Of the
really fine and true bits of ~farcical acting
of our stage. JOHN CoRB1N.