The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-04-08


ness, else the people wouldn't buy it,
Ihey liked as much as ever to laugh
out demanded more than merriment
Tor their money. Augustin Days
translated German farces, with Ada
Rekan, John Drew, James Lewis and
Mrs Gilbert In them, petered out after
sixteen had thrived. Charles Froh-
mans farces from the French counted
up eighteen before audiences would
take no more, and the company led by
r. M. Holland and Fritz williams was
G1sbanded. Since then plain farce has
been scarce in this country. But now
OF sudden it will again be plentiful.
The public lately has hankered for a
change of foolery. and chance has fixed
the nature of the change. And the
chance comes of a mischance.
A comedian of note in London
couldn't be spared there to be brought
here with the rest of the company in
Mr. Hop6inson," nor was there any
available actor resembling him for a
substitute; so a chap who had never
acted in London, and whose provincial
salary of 5 pounds a week didn't have
10 be raised for a New York engage
ment was hired because, anyway, his
ugllness was so comic that he was
bound to cause a laugh at first sight.
Dallas Welfords face and pudgy fig
ure set New York laughing and have
forced the rather Punch-Iike humor of
an English farce into a literally howl
ing success. simultaneously, Francis
Wilson places his grotesquery to good
advantage in the farce of 1.-THE Noun
tain Climber" and another actor born
comic, Etienne GirardOt, quick to per-
ceive the new direction of the thea
trical tide. begins again with Char
ley's Aunt" where he left off a dozen
years ago.
Upon this freshet of farce. which is
sure of rising to a big though prob
ably brief flood. appears this week the
new foolcraft of It's All Your Fault"
Edgar Selwyn built it several years
ago but waited to launch # until the
present suddenly favorable condition
of the theatrical stream. OF course
II wouldn't float if it didn't deserve it,
out, all the same, IT would have sunk
last season as surely as it sails buoy
antly this season with the wind shifted
TO the right quarter and blowing hard
Herbert Sheath, who acts for pleasure
as he is too wealthy to care for the
profit. produces the piece and acts in
It. So does Selwyn. whom you may
have seen with Maude Adams in The
Pretty Sister of jose and Ethel Bar
rymore in Sunday" / am told that
Selwyn, with reasonably high dra-
matte ambition, falls into his own
farce in the way of mishap. Charles
Dickson retOrted at a rehearsal when
Selwyn offered instruction how to
treat a comic passage:
There's nothing left for me to learn
in farce" he said, but perhaps a ro-
mantle actor like you might make 'em
laugh more"
We'll" said selwyn, III make the
experiment"
Selwyn meant to play the part dur
ing week of try-Cut towns only and
q substitute was coached for the New
York opening, but this man fell i'll so
late in the afternoon that in the even
mg the highly aspiring Selwyn was
caught III his own farce and had to
make broadway
~ oh provoker.
However. neither Sheath nor Selwvn
in the human oddly in It's All Your
Fault but Master Pincus with a
mask of MOmus that he can't lake off
He plays a boy who escapes from a
reformatory, hides in a household of
jealous wives, husbands and sweet
hearts. and becomes the hub of
Whrrling wheel of hiIarity. The par
ucuIars are not worth while to give
although they fill an evening with fool
ish fun. But Master Pincus along
with Wilson, Wexford and Giradot
seems to show that ludicrous freaks of
individuality are essential in the re-
uaIssance of farce
Ruth St Denis, a bare waist and
bare leg dancer Of the stage, is New
Horks present sensation.
The process by which Miss St. Denis
p has been doomed is a curious ilIustra-
ton of fashions craving for new di-
version and the general public's readt-
ness to follow on. 1t began with sub
scription matinee last week for wo-
men only. matronized by a dozen Ia
dies of mOdish wealth, and with adj
mission to the theatre denied to other
than personally invited visitors At a
second matinee, this week every seat
IN the house was sold at Broadway
dramatic prices, although she gave the
whole show alone, except for a musical
programme Thus she is started with
much momentum on her way to cash
up a celebrity which some people will
regard as vicious notoriety and others
as artistic fame.
In that disputed question lies the
young woman's success. She makes
a triple appeal-to art, as an exponent
of oriental grace, such as painters have
delighted to picture: in religion as a
depicter of worship as conducted by
rriestesses in Buddhist temples: and of
sensuousness, as a two-thirds naked
dancing girl. OF course, it is the as
pect last mentioned that most of the |
visitors go to see; but the two others |
save many from being ashamed to !
look at her, besides SHEDDING Com
stock away.
In religious art. Ruth is a truly fine |
exhibit, and as a sensa tionaI stunt she |
may critically be said to he all the
candy. She begins by burning some |
thing OdOrOus in a censor. posturing |
and gyrating dreamily while thus Gre
ating mystic atmosphere, and during |
that service she is swathed I'm eastern !
fabrics. Next, she gives a cobra dance,
not with legs and feet, but with arms I
and hands. Her long slender plant |
arms. Is barred for this exercise are |
tinted to a Nautch girls tawny hue, /
her fingers are blue. with gems gleam- |
ing on two Of each hand like eyes, |
and one nail REDEEMED like a tongue |
tip. Writing and wriggling the arms I
and hands thus colored make a re- /
semblance. to serpents i'm way that /
is almost horribly Fascinating But the |