The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-11
LARGE AUDIENCE
SEES GREAT COMEDY
ANNIE RUSSELL, CHARMING IN "A
MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM
PLAY WELL STAGFD--SCENic
EFFECTS BRILLIANT

Splendid audiences greeted yesterday IN
this city a production OF play written
long. long ago. At the matinee and at
night our best people went to the. Jet-
ferson to witness once again Shakes
perian play. thus attesting the appre-
citation in Birmingham. by Birmngham
people, of the work of the master when
properly presented.
The play of yesterday was written over
three hundred years ago, for Shakespeare
began to write plays in 1890, and some
think "A Midsummer Nights Dream was
written in the following year. 1t was at
any rate one of the first nalf dozen ne
wrote.
Shakespeare was as happy in comedy
as he was great in tragedy, and even m
tales of fairies and elves and sprites
he was delightful. In the Tempest the
fantastic creatures did their spiriting gen
tly aboard ship or on an island. but
in "A Midsummer Nights Dream we
have the COLLINS in a wood or i'll a pal
ace. where they are more strenuous.
Including the duke and his sweetheart
Athens on one day, but on the night previ-
Gus one thing or another leads them to
wander in a forest near the Atheniae
city. and there Puck and Oberon, who is
his (her) master, mixes things up by
amounting their eyelids with magic
fluid which causes them to dote on the
first person they see when they wake up
Even Titania wakes up to dote on Bot
tom, the weaver. although he has become
an ass No wonder Puck was ready to
exclam, what fools these mortals be-
In all this confusion of the affections
wrought by Puck, as the ready agent OF
Oberon, comes :" crew of patches, rude
mechanicals, that work for bread upon
Athenian stalls" to rehearse the woeful
tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe to be pre-
scented at the palace as part of the
wedding festivities Three loving couples,
Puck and his satellites. and the rude
mechanicals-th constitute the person
mel of the merry play.
II is a delightful play to read-so limpid.
and so full of choice expression and trans
parent thought. It does not stimulate the
mind as Hamlet or King Lear does-t
is just the pleasantest and merriest OF
reading. And on every page of 1t are
sentences or phrases that the people carry
in their hearts and minds-famillar lines
whose source they may not even be aba
do recall. Those fresh from a reading of
the play may yesterday have experienced
at some points disappointment, for it Is
! not possible to present such merry lines
and situations on a contracted stage in all
their mirth and beauty.
The staging of the play was excellent.
Two years ago Louis James and kalh-
crime Kidder played here in the fairy tale,
and Katherine 1<idder was Puck. The
staging of the play yesterday did not
perhaps outrun in beauty the production
of two years ago, but the fairies nave
acquired in the intervening years greater
powers of flight. They fit hither and
thither, and Puck is easily the fleetest
and lightest of them all. The production
was full of delightful scenic pictures.
Annie Russell easily made amends for
any shortcomings She Is mschevous
from the moment she bounds on the stage,
aid hei misunderstanding is grace and
dc,icacy and daintiness itself. Her perso-
n5lly makes the spectators glad they
CT me to see her. Her glee is SO zestful,
s apparently natural. so charming that
a.: went away delighted with the play
ard the players. She romps and dances
ara sings and flies mad sprite"
shocld She never forgets to be sprightly.
ard she never forgets the reading of the
lir,er OF the immortal comedy of the forest
Rctn Goodfellow Is indeed delight as
| NJ SO Russell portrays him
another excellent player was John
Bunny, who was Bottom, the weaver
! There is scarcely anything in our literature
more ludcrous than Stage Manager
/ Ounce and his players. of whom Bottom
~ easily chief. for Bottom desired to be-
also the lion who could roar you as gent
~ as any sucking dove. Mr. Bunny shared
| with Miss Russell the appreciation and