The daily sentinel., 1906-09-08
sHAKEspEAREAN INTERPRETER.
Phidelah Rice Is Entitled to High
Rank-Large Audience Heard
the Young Gentleman
Last Night at Pres
byterian Church.

numerous occasions and has giver
several individual recitals but the
work he did last night in his presen-
tation of Shakespeare great farce
comedy, "The Tanning of the Shrew. -
and his impersonation of the various
characters of the piece, in our esti-
nation, surpasses any previous eff
:orts made in the city by the won
uerfully talented young reader, who.
almost beyond shadow of a doubt, is
destined to become one the leading
and most successful entertainers in
this field of work in the country and
by his splendid delineation of Shakes
reare last evening the young gentle
man gave further evidence that
should he ever desire to go upon the
stage he would have the most roseate
prospects of taking a high rank in
that great world of entertainment.
Mr.. Rice easily demonstrated last
evening that in the broad and difficult
lield of Shakespearean work he shines
with true brilliancy. He proved him
self close and strong student of the
Bard of Avon and his Interpretation
of "The Tanning of the Shrew" de-
lighted and charmed the large aud
ence that had gathered to hear him.
An entertainer could hardly essay a
more difficult task than the present
ing of a Shakespearean play. he as
suming and portraying all the charac-
ters. 1t must be carried out wholly
successful or else the entertainment is
completely spoiled and in order to re-
tain the full interest of the audience
is must be most capably presented.
Mr.. Rice was entirely equal to the
requirements, he awoke the highest
admiration of his hearers and kept
them enthusiastically interested.
Mr.. Rice in opening happily re-
ferred to criticicm of Shakespeare
work by Barnard Shaw and then gave
brief synopsis of the early part of
the story of "The Tanning of the
Shrew." Previous to presenting each
of the two acts of the farce comedy
Mr.. Rice made interesting explana-
tions of the story not told in the
words of the various characters. The
first act consisted of one scene and
the second act of two scenes. The
production of the play required about
forty-five minutes with a short inter
mission between the acts and between
the scenes of the last act.
The representations of "Petruchio"
the bold young lover who tanned
Katherine, of "Baptista." the arlsto-
cratic old gentleman of Padua and
the father of Katherine. the Shrew,
who under Petruohio's campaign be
came so meek; Grumio. the cringing
and garrulous servant of Petruchio:
of Curtis, the old hag; of Nathaniel.
another servant: of the insulted mus
ic master; and of the clustering tay-
lor-all these embraced wonder
and Mr.. Rice so cleverly and ably
assumed each of these characters that
it was easy to believe there was a
full company acting presenting the
play instead of one man giving all the
characters. He was superb in each
portrayal, it would be hard to tell in
which he was the best He made an
ideal Petruchio, he most cleverly read
the lines of Katherine, the Shrew,
One of the very best portions of his
work was on the character of Grum-
10, the servant. His quick changes
from the lines of one character to that
of another were simply marvellous.
His enunciation. his perfect adap-
tion of voice to suit each and every
character, his facial expressions and
his movements on the platform, could
hardly be criticized.
Beyond doubt Mr.. Rice's work last
night was the peer and doubtless the
superior of any piece of impersona-
tion ever performed in the city. The
young man certainly won new laurels
last night.
Following the presentation of the
play Mr.. Rice gave two other selec-
tions, one of which was the powerful
decription in Ralph Connor's MAN
from Glengary." of the struggle in
the tavern between Mcdonald Bain's
men and Dan Murphy's gang" the
last selection was a humorous piece.
the impersonating of young girl re-
citing The Village Blacksmith" and
her little brothers effort along the
same line.
AS a special feature of the en-
tertainment Miss Carrie Rozzelle.
rendered THE Voice of the Morning"
a beautiful piano solo. Mrs. F. H |
Welles sang sweetly. THE Bright
Star of Hope" and Frank Leslie sang
The King of the Road" Each of
these features was warmly received
and very delightful.
The audience was large one. the
the church auditorium being COM
pletely filled.
Roast duck and sweet potatoes to-
morrow at dinner from five till eight