The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-30
MISS LENA ASHWELL is HERE
ENGLISH EMOTIONAL ACTING IN
"THE SHULAMITE."

An Able and Restrained Performance. but
Lacking the Larger sweep O1 Power
"A Gloomy DOer Play. simply ami
ID sOlldly but Rather CrudeIy Written.
Ever since Miss Lena Ashwell electrified
London in Mrs. Danes Defense" she has
been recognized as the leading emotional
actress in England, allowing OF course that
Mrs. Campbell belongs in a different cate
CORY. The Shulamite," in which she APP
ipeared last night at the Lyric, though a
'dramatized novel, Ia conceded to have been
'the one English play Of last year Of strong
dramatic fibre.
Those who expected much last night,
however, we're measureably disappointed.
The play, which tells the story Of a BOer
wife una the old regime before the war
who is in love with an Englishman, is solidly
conceived in its main characters ana situa-
tions, and Is simply written; but it lacks
dramatic skill in the writing ano technical
mastery in the construction. Miss Ash
wells performance was able and restrained
throughout, and had moments Of intimate
charm an we'll as moments OF tense emotion.
s~But-possibly because OF the cruueness Of her
medium-it lacked the larger sweep Of power
which was expected ana which Miss Ash
well achieved as Mrs. Dane.
The strongest impression OF the evening
in point Of fact was made by Mr.. Edward
II. Mawson in the part Of the patriarchal
Poer husband who based his life on the
Scripture, spared not the rod and spoiled
his wife. Whether the character was over
drawn may be disputed; but it gave the inn
preston Of a solidly conceived character
study with vivid light and shade, and Mr..
Mawson rendered It with uncommon sim
pAicity, presence and power.
On the occasion OF the first American
performance Of the play in Chicago. it will
he remembered. the central situation. which
bsurns upon DebOrdh's false assertion that
she is to bear a child to her childless pa
triarchal husband. caused ribald laughter
in an audience composed largely OF men
and women who had been celebrotilg the
famous victory Of White SoK over Cubs.
There we're hushed filters and Giggles last
night. but the simplicity and sincerity of
the treatment carried the dav. The Situa-
,tion was. in fact, as genuinely interesting
as it was fresh and striking.
Dom Simeon has the Mosaic habit OF en-
forcing obedience with the lash and the
Englishman, in love with the young ana
beautiful Debordh-the ShulS mite OF Solo
mons lyric description-is of n temper to
make a lively row If he Is ever present at
such a scene. With the lash poised above
Der and her chivalrous lover in the back
ground, Deborah saves the situation Ivy
'proclaiming that she ia with child. The
lie meIts the heart of the childless Boer OF
patriarchal instincts, and upon the promise
of a son and heir his stern demand for
obedience is changed to doting indul-
gence.
In the second act the catastrophe de-
Yerred falls with redoubled force. Dis
covering that his wife has lied and that
she and the EnRlishman are in love, Simeon
DEGREES Debordh's death and departs for
his rife. The Englishman returns and in
defence Of Deborah and himself shoots the
husband. The third act brings a happy end
ing and is as complicated and unconvinc-
ing as its predecessors are simple and
strong.
It is doubtful whether under any circum-
stances the play could have any great
popular interest. The dominant figure
Of old Simeon IL even more gloomily rigid
than Sudermann's Colonel Schpdrtze in
3Heimat, : whom he strikingly resembles.
And, like Sch TnriEC, he is apparently Of an
obsolescent type. as nav be gathered from
the fact that the action is laid in the more
primitive patrlarchal period twenty-five
years ego, which preceded the Boer war.
But much might have been done by skill
ful writing. Unfortunately neither Claude
Askew, who, with Alice Askew, wrote the
novel, nor Edward Knoblauch, an Ameri-
can resident in London, was equal TO the
occasion. With the freshest and most
promising characters and situations, they
lack both the requisite dTamatic impetus
and the requisite dramatic fire.
Aside from Miss Ashwell and Mr.. Nav
son, the cast was weak. MIR. John Blair
played the English lover with his familiar
ianguor and afectation of pose. He moved
about the stage like a half animated rocking
borse and spoke his lines as If he we're tired
of them.
Maude GranG er had the character part
Of Simcor's sister, in whom malignant
suspicion rs to his murder battles with
covetous greed for the gold in his golfers.
Her plump and diminutive e~ffortsto overawe
the towering Miss Ashwell had enough of
the breadth and emphasis of the old school
10 make them quite ludicrous. A boer
yokel was played by George le Guere, and
a KaHir maidservant by Beryi Mercer.
These six people composed the entire cast.
During the first two acts Miss Ashwcll
was received with a warmth OF applause
that had the ring Of more than mannerly
hospitality. An interested management
so manipulated the curtain rs to force her
20 a speech, which she obv iously wished to
escape, and for which she was wholly UNI
prepared. She very chaTmingly said. Thank
you. That's all ] can say, and looked be-
seechingly into the wing