The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-04-06
ADJUSTMENTS
Metropoli s. willard

Metropo litan-E. s. Willard.
2. 9. Willard and his players
scored an artistic triumph at the Met
ropolitan last night in !" David Gar
rick 8 and 1.-THE Man Who Was So
much can be said in truth for the arts,
try OF this player that it's recital would
appeal sfplsome. He is q master Of sit
uation and Of climax. Altho the fin
lshed actor, he is always the man, car
rylng his audience with him and in his
p.ortrayals opening to the vision situa-
lions and scenes not attempted by the
author 81 !, or suggested by visible stage
The evening opened with David
Garrick. Mr.. Willard cast in the title
role. The story, of the player OF Drury
Lane who pledged his honor to cure q
garded as shameless love for an actor
she had never met, is familiar to all:
Willard 8 conception of the, man OF
culture in the home of q bourgeois
tradesman Of the period is pleasing.
There is nothing of disdain for social
Pretension born Of commercial success,
but rather covert amusement at the
seriousness with which the characters
take themselves and their achievements.
ronlze them, does not pose or attempt
to thrust forward his contrasting re-
fnement.
In the second act, in which the play
er, having discovered that the girl he is
to disillusion is the one he has localized
and loved after feeting glimpse from
his stage, Mr.. Willard rises to the sit
uation with telling effect. He finds
himself in the position of the man with
honor pledged, but the execution Of the
promise meaning the loss to him, for
khn h. law hr,1f q
whole scene, the simulated intoxication,
the insults to the company assembled
at the dinner, the moments when there
come to the player the full realization
| of the effect upon his future and his
plunge into some fresh and more repre-
hensible form Of offensiveness, call for
the full powers of the actor. Willard
goes thru the whole in mastery style.
| 1t is a scene which might be made as
offensive to the audience as to it's vic
Tins upon the boards, but here the fin
ish Of the actor draws the line, and
eleverly.
| The third act brings Garrick back
to his own once more and the work of
Mr.. Willard is thru. The girl discov-
ers the trick, fees to her actor-lover to
escape a distasteful alliance with a
registering cousin, wins the forgiveness
| Of the father and the curtain drops
upon the world.forgetting lovers.
1.-THE Man Who Was" brings Mr.
Willard into view as the escaped 81
berian convict, the central figure in
cal blow at Russia. The Austin Limp
son of the actor is one which dismays
and appals. The reversal from the
graceful and polished man Of the world
Of Mr.. Willard IS Garrick to the I'M
kempt wrath Of man of his Limp
son is agonizingly complete. When thu
travel stained and emaciated figure Of
the English army officer, escaped from
the Siberian mines, staggers into thu
barracks room in India, Willard show
his audience a greater tragedy tina,
minds away from the pitiful figure upo1
the stage to the north, thru the Khybe
pass, and into the penal colonies Of tn
Russ. While the figure grovels upo1
the floor the audience is watching il
mind g eye the falling of the knou
and the half-starved, illkept subject
of the car in the prison mines.
As the wreck, ruined in mind an
body, draws faint glimmering of in
telligence> Of his surroundings, as rea
son replaces abject fear and he recoe
Limpson works carefully He hesi
tates to disturb the illusion and neve
! makes the mistake, even at the finale
Of allowing his character to regain eve
a small portior-of the powers he pos
sessed when, twenty years before, b
! was captured in The Crimea and hui
: ried away for what had better bee
! burial. It was the work Of fnishe
v actor, a man who is master Of hi
: craft. sSs
! Mr.. Willard IS support is SO CAREFUL
s balanced that Individual mention
;. needless. His players as a whole, co,
8 stitute the most capable company see
j. in Minneapolis in several years. A
: evening with themE$an Mr.. Willard
u one never to be forgotten.
q 3@15.',@ j. H. R.