The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-10-28

nlInertO unknown TO thedtrlCal d1Stlnc-
tion, and only one enjoying celebrity in
| fiction, provide the dramas of serious
interest that are new in Broadway this
week. The women are Edith Wharton,
Rachel Crothers and Cora Maynard.
| Their themes are alike the American
greed of wealth, and all of their work
is surprising for its characteristic of
masculine virility. Even though Miss
Wharton's play, THE House of Mirth."
like the novel from which it is tran
scribed, makes feminine vanity of dress
main factor in the case of smart
set girl, there is nothing weakly Wo-
manish in the composition.
n
In stage circles the story goes that
right upon the "best-selling success"
of Edith Wharton's book came many
bids for the right to make a play of it,
and that she declined them because she
believed 1t was utterly opposed to stage
requirements. Then, the story goes on
Charles Frohman, who had not been a
bidder, smelt the smoke of battle and
entered in to conquer He offered to
Mrs. Wharton, it is said, her own price
and the aid of the best procurable dra-
matist, who should either work by him
self or with her, as she chose. Whether
that tale of the Rialto is true, there is
no doubt that the first performance of
the play by Mrs. Wharton and Clyde
Fitch was an occasion of great fiutter.
Not since the American duplication
of the Coincide Franchise production
or The DueP' have so many people dis
tinguished in literature assembled in
theatre. And, socially, the affair was
like big night at the opera, for Mrs
Wharton lis one Of us, you know"
x X x
L wonder what a person who hadn't
read the book could make out of the
Nd II n ANatN &1,0L l.
matization departs from the original
narrative. Lily Bart's financial predic-
ament, her Impractical love of Seldom,
her losing Of the millionaire sutton, and
her first money ENHANCEMENT with Gus
Trevor, make an eventful first act Be
hind the scenes of the tableaux at the
Trevors' deserted town house make a
background, in the second act, for
Lily's naughty rejection of Rosedale
her capitulation to Seldom, and the be-
smirching adventure with Gus Trevor.
The third act, on the yacht off Monte
Carlo, follows the novel in form as we'll
as in matter, showing Lily's reunion
with Seldom, and Bertha Dorset's trick
cry and election. The last act is in
the millinery shop, showing Lily's
financial degradation, her fareWells to
Rosedale and Seldom, and her suicide
for climax.
This synopsis is given in the belief
that most of my readers are familiar
with the book, and to show them how
faithfully the incidents have been re-
tanned; and it may suggest to those
who haven't perused the story how the
play might perplex them. Everything
has been amatized-everything ex-
cept the motives. Clyde Fitch knows
well enough the desirability of plain
reasons for conduct on the stage; and
Mrs. Wharton is too clever not to know
it, too; but she seems to have decided
that the play was wanted especially by
and for readers of her book, and could
not be made effectual with others. That
she was shrewd about that will doubt
less be demonstrated by the profits of
a success.
Fay Davis as Lily Bart gets her
American opportunity at last She is a
Bostonian who made a reputation on
the London stage before acting in her
native land at all. The openings made
for her had proved useless, for she is a
peculiar artist and Lily Bart, as de-
Scribed by the authoress, wouldn't seem
possibility to her. Yet her perform
ance delights Mrs. Wharton as well as
others acquainted with Lily Bart.
Rachel Crothers has sent many man.
Uscripts on rounds of the theatres. She
began five or six years ago, but it was
not until this week that one of them
got TO the public in an acted play. Why
It was delayed on its way from her
desk to the stage cannot be explained,
except by assuming that most mana
gers lack the patience to hunt among
bad pieces for q good one. 1t is hard
to believe that any man of theatrical
experience rejected 1.-The Three of U.s.
after reading the following scene: The
three of them are heirs to a Nevada
camp that has yielded nothing but dis
appointment: but the eldest, girl, has
needed her fathers dying injunction to
wait for it to enrich them. Her broth
err, money mad, and angry at her re-
fusai to sell the mine for whatever It
will bring. takes a bride of $500 10 re-
veal her sweetheart's business secrets
to a rival sutton.
Carlotta Nilsson is the actress of the
sister, and 1 introduce Carlotta to you
as wilful genius, who misused her
abilities with whimsical mannerisms,
and therefore was consigned to t he
limbo of futile imitators of Mrs. Fiske.
But she seems TO have taken it into
her curly head and dimpled brain to
play this good sister of a bad boy sim
ply, naturally and tenderly, loving him
as though he deserved it, and making
every sacrifice in their poverty for him
and their boy brother.
~
So the audience is ready to award a
halo to the sweet sister and halter to
the bitter brother when the winning
episode of the play comes off. The
brother is sinking away at night with
his ill-gotten $500, intending to leave
the sister to the struggle against pow
erty alone, when she intercepts him at
the doorway. She begs him to stay
with her and their little brother; she
offers to sacrifice her hope in the mine
and raise twice the amount of his bribe
if he will return the price of his dis
honor, and finally she throws her arms
around his neck to detain him; but he
savagely shakes her off and throws her
down. She has not told him what mis-
cry his misdeed will bring upon her
that she will be unable to disprove that
she Is a traitress to one lover and the
mistress of another; but in her dispair
she sobs it out, and the fellow listens
dazedly until the truth as to her help
less plight gets into his head. Then,
awkwardly but humanity, he draws her