The Minneapolis journal., 1906-11-18

AAJA ALKER WHITESIDE brings
w Melody" to the Metropol-
ftan stage tonight and we shall have
The pleasure of seeing him in a modern
role. Shaksperean and romantic roles
nave hitherto engaged his attention
and there IS much curiosity to see how
he will handle the really modern. The
advance notices indicate that the play
1t is said to be full of "poniard
thrusts' at the false culture Of met
ropolitan society," so-called. Per
haps these verbal thrusts will atone for
the lack of romantic swordplay. The
second metropolitan offering is the
sempiternal "Country Fair" with
Neil Burgess in his seemingly immortal
.mRersonaticn ,i| rs on of the old maid. There
VIII be no little interest in "Sundav, -
the pretty comedy which Ethel Barry
more made famous and which is to play
at the Bijou with what is promised to
De company of unusually high quality
for popular-priced houses. Junie Nc
Cree's slang classic, "The Man from
Denver,' has the headline at the
Orpheum, and as it has never been seen
here the event is interesting The
Unique promises a new bill, opening
tomorrow quite up to it's standard, and
the Dewey offering is yclept Camp
BELLS Nightingales.
, Thanksgiving week is to be marked
by two evidences of the revival of
comic OPERA ''The Princess BeoI
gar,' in which Paula Edwards rds' is Dt the
star, and The Girl and the GovernorO.
OF which Jefferson De Angels is the
shining light, are both to be real
comic operas, of the old style in con
tradlstlnctlon to the modern and de-
cadent musical comedy. Mr.. De
Angels is credited with the following
very sensible remarks in this connec,
tion:
Inc public taste is the same as it always
was--probably better-for musical knowledge is
more generally difused. Fierce competition has
almost beGgared managers in equpping their
plays and operas Stage establishment can
60 no further. and the lay mind can readily
understand that ''to deliver the goods there
must be something more than scenery and cos
snmes % TO make either a play opera accept
aoie and this is the issue of the argument: a
~eh-"rltten play, well-composed OPERA in
tGelIreted Grt by artists Is necessary to success
genuine comic opera has its parallel on the
dramatic stage. The romantic play, if full
or dramatic and heart interest and adherjnp
TO certain established forms, will live forever:
Ior In Its structure are adjusted nicely the ala
Ments OF love, romance and comedy never oh
erudlng. but adjuncts to each other in the com.
piete development of the play. During my ex-
perience the comic operas which failed to please
were lacking in the adjustments Of the ele
ments L have mentioned. The best proof of
the non-success Of this himsy material is shown
where they are exploited on the French and
German stages. There they are utter failures
Chicago has been enjoying the past
week a theosophical play, or at least
play in which the most important theo-
sophical doctrine-that of reincarna-
MS exemplifed. "The Road to
Yesterday written by Evelyn Green
leaf Sutherland and Beulah Dix, makes
for perhaps the first time effective
lief of the ancients.
produces the proper atmosphere, of oc-
cult fancies by the confessions of the
various, characters as to haunting mem
orles they have had of previous exist
ences. There comes out among them
love romance in which a soldier woos
maid vainly. She loves him, but! is
seized by strange feeling of distrust
and dread. In the party is an impet-
uous American girl, who is fired by her
Visits to historic scenes in London and
by this, mystic studio talk. Under
the snell of her excited Imagination and
ieverlsh temperament she drifts into
the 7clalrvoyant state. Her astral
soul, as the theosophists would say,
quits her body and, in a, strange sort
OF dual existence, she sees herself going
PACK along the road to yesterday to
md herself Lincolnshire maid of
1903. Along with her are all The neo-
pie who figured in the studio scene, but
now reverted to their Jacobite charac
ters OF three centuries ago. This astral