The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-12
THEATRES

Tbe Ben Greet Players tn "EVSEtAaAA' v
 Say, what is this thing they've got on tonight? No drops, no stage set- tings, no nothing. And they've taken out the orchestra rail and built up 8 set of steps from the audience to the stage They tell me some of the &C., tors are going to sit in the audience and climb right up from 1t on the stage Now, what do you think or that?'
 A couple of local stage hands in the enjoyment of an unusual leisure at the Montgomery Theatre as the theatre crowd was gathering, were discussing the strange play that was about to be put on up stairs.
 why, I think it is a pipe for the stage hand" said the other cdntentedly.
 It was Ben Greet's famous Morality play "Everyman," played as 1t was played when Shakespeare was holding horses in London. as it was played when Columbus sailed away from Spain with an apostolic blessing and Q large cargo of hope. It was an old Morality play, played on a stage almost bare' and by actors, some of whom came for ward from the body of the audience And as novel as it was, Its startling departure from the stage conventions of today, was no handicap to the intel lectual enjoyment of the evening.
 MT. Greet has brought this play out of the dead centuries into the present day and made people of the twentieth century applaud and admire it singly and solely by the splendid standard Of diction and elOcution he has set for his players. In this, at least, the produe" ton is an artistic triumph, that mod ern players speak so clearly ana so elcauently the archaic English of the fifteenth century that meueFns 1 ..e quite taken with its music and it's force Through this requirement of clear and distinct enunciatton MT {: Greet has achieved peculiar ana uniaue reputation as an artist. NOT would any just man after sitting Tn tne spell of his players voices talking nt- teenth century English deny him one iot or little of that reputation.
 The stage is set only once and then only in gray plainness The single setting shows the courtyard of the Salamanca Convent, Spain. where the Morality play was first produced. TWO immovable figures are at either side ot the stage In gray and black near the footIights They say nothing nor do thev move until one of them steps back on the stage and gets a stool for one of the players.
 A messenger comes out of the audi ence and taking a position on the stage admonIshes the congregation TO glVe audience to this matter ana nere II with reverence. NONW tbASsoAAAAts SAAa- solemn adjuration. one does not forget that Miss Madeline Anderton, the saucy solo dancer from England, was right there only the night before on the same spot occupied by the convent yard right there pirouetting on one shapeIy leg while the other pointed to the rool of the building. | a coneeption of the religion and the morality of other days. A voice from the heavens announces that all men are called to judgment. "Dethe' comes upon the stage in a marvellous mak' up, and stops "Evsryman" in the mids of a light and gay love song, 10 tel him he must die. "Everyman learni of the terrible journey he is to taK' | from the sepulchral lectures of "Dethe. Stricken with horror, "EveTyman' seeks to find some companion to gC | with him down the dark way. In hii failure to do so, Is wrought the mora | lesson of the play, which teaches tn' | uselessness of the things generally valued in life The unfortunate ap
 heals to ''Felayshlp" ''Kyndred," Cos ! in" and Riches" to so with him on th dark Journey. but they laugh at an'
 scorn him. .~
 At last, when he is despairing. "Goo' peedes" lightens his sorrows ant
 vvhen she has led him to repentance an 1 to Sq-onfesslon," he loses his horror O ths crave and descends Into its dark ness with Good Deedes'' at his side | ThA program is according to th' estaentb century idea There ia lis
 of the players printed in one corner O
 it. but the characters they assume ar
 not designated It could well be hope
 that a change to this extent were pos