The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-31
SHAW kNDFOUBES ROBERTSON
"CKSAR AND CLEOPATRA" ALL
KINDS OF PLAY BY TURNS

But Most Convincing % Musical Comedy
sans Music. q PhllOsophlc wizard Of
the NiIe"-FOrbes Robertson, Always
Fine Has One Supreme Moment.
If there is anything in the principle Of
the variety show, Bernard Shaw's Caesar
and Cleopatra" which had the distinction
Of being produced by Forbes Robertson
last night at the New Amsterdam, should
prove popularity attractive.
1t il more kinds Of a play than were
known to the dramatic criticism of PoLonius.
Not all OF them, to be sure, are diverting.
Much OF the talk is out OF the Pshaw wind
bag. In spite Of the cutting Of the third
ect-which b programme tells US was
done by the authors express direction,
though perhaps not without a sigh-there
arc Considerable passages OF melodramatic
plotting that are u~nmistakably a bore.
But the first act and a half possessed
the audience with a breeze OF delighted
laughter; there Is one incident that spelled
for some Of US a moment OF true dramatic
horror; and once or twioe Forbes Robert
sou found scope for as fine and poetic
P transport OF exaltation as Is to be found
In his consummately fine and poetic Hamlet.
when all is said, however, It is as musical
comedy sans music that the performance
proved most convincing. Shaw's pur-
pose, as he is at pains to inform us very
nlVeTUI1RY III ms DICthC6 W JhO Dbhyt 10 W
present to US the real Cesar, stripped Of
Imperial glamour and romantic ~falsehood.
What Mommsen did for history, he has
attempted for the drama. Thus is the
play better than Shakespeare-not better
Drama, he modestly assures us, only bet,
ter natural history But where the learned
German has t~ransposed his hero into the
~Rpotheosis Of the practical, Shaw has
made his a leading man in burlesque.
The fact 10 outwardly demonstrated by
ahA Aoo.fx ~ fhn aOanary and the nOIv-
Chromatic brilliance Of the crowds. A
more POLITICALLY splendid production has
seldom been seen. But II is no less evident
in the manner in which, Tor long stretches.
cess at the game. 1t is all on the level OF
high intelligence, mind you. The only
slapstick is OF the intellect, and the only
hufooning Of ideas. And yet it is manifest
that age has only freshened and new custom
Tejuvenated CEeopGtrd's variety show.
Even in that dear, intimate, even poetic
scene Of moonlight in which the aging
Caesar sits with the infant Queen between
the paws of a baby Sphinx and swaps con-
Versation, it is the laugh rather than the
character and the idy1 that counts Here
is an old man with a lingering, unconquera-
BILE weakness for the sex mentally caressing
q slip OF a girl, and rebuffed by her infantile
terrors of speech. The audience rose to
I, saturated with the thrill OF intrinsic
laughter.
BY and by all sense OF reality is lost in
the gale. BurleeQue comedy OF greatness
eventuates in gag and topical alluslon-
There is a hit at the new woman OF ShaW's
own youth. There is a gibe at the modern
British doting on blue blood and p~latitudin-
iEing about society and the conventions
moralities.
Cesar takes up the cudgels with Shaw
against the barbaric futility OF hogging.
There IL a buriesque Of spirit rapping, with
a miniature sphinx as the medium-C@sdT
gently satirizes the occasion as out OF date.
When he mentions the rear as the seven
hundred and sixth of the founding Of Rome,
it Seems only q slip Of the tongue that he
did not say - B. G.
The same spirit of wilful and sophisti-
Gated Rnachronism is evident in the most
O)mpeling bit Of writing In the dialogue
which Forbes Robertson converts into a
moment OF the deepest Philosophic tragedy.
Of her queendom, has used her new hedged
power TO procure the assassination OF her
brothers plotting guardian, POthirus, TO
the ruin OF all CGedr's plans. In rhetorical
fxion- ORsar expands into a moment OF
tragic insight, in which he foresees that
the tides OF b perversity OF human nature
can only DO Gtemmed by One 40 weak as 70
suffer c~rucinxion for humanity, or one
strong enough in clemency to force it to
Up 10 that moment Forbes Robertson
had shown only Caesars worldly polish,
the Iine humor of his address, the light
certainty OF his wise and not uptender
humanity-an illusion powerfully reen-
forced by the actors instructive grace and
commanding carriage. 10y the first citi-
zen of Rome. the self-assured cOnqueror
OF the world, heightened and klndled to the
vision Of q HCmla OF wider outlook upon
life and history. His voice, always sweet,
vibrant and powerfully varied in coloring,
sweIled to the fulness OF prophetic exalta-
ton; and his face was aftame with the fires
Of spiritual comprehension.
N the act had ended there 1t would proba-
Div nave carried the audience of It's feet.
But the incident followed the murder OF
CLeo pdfrd's nurse, Ftdtdteetd, at praye
before an Egyptian idol. Logically this
might have been right enough, and there
effective. But the sight OF the corpse lying
across the bloodstained pedestal Jared
>,Ipon an audience u~nprepared by what had
preceded for anything but intellectual
iooling. Shaw the wit had killed the effect
Of Shaw the dramstist. The error was
characteristic. The playwright had raised
The Wizard Of the Nil" to the nth degree Of
Cleverness: but cleverness Is seldom clever
enough TO know that It is only cleverness.
Diverting In spots and supremacy staged and
acted, Cesar and Cleopatra Ia a theatrical
ynAlange, an artistic abortion.
Miss Gertrude Elliott's winsome girlish
charm has never been more evident vhan in
this CLeOpGtTd. The wilfulness of the
Egyptian Queen she dld wen'
II she fell short Of the tragic horror of the
scene OF Ftdtdteetd's murder. the fault was
not only hers.
As the stodgy and pompous Britdnus
Ian Robertson was admirable. He lacked
only the whiskers Of being a phllosophio
Dandredry. The PothinHs OF Charles
Janrley and the RUfO OF Percy Rhodes
were az able as such nugatory characters
required.
On the whole, in spite of its periodic
Guinness and lapses from sound dramatic
of shaw and gives scope TO the most pene-
trating powers OF a great actor. 1t bidr
fair to be the greatest-is it also the only
success Professionalism has achieved
since his Hamlet. (
News OF Plays and Players.
Rachel Crothers, author OF -The Three o.
Us which is being presented at the Madison
60. rA.nA-n hna anld n WaItar N