The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1906-03-20
PROVIDENCE OPERA HOUSE


Mira Nelson. ....,.,....K Katherine Rordsn
Molly Livingston ............ Louise Drew
Betty Bates. es..,................M .MaJOrle Wood
Maud Weston. Lucille Stanford
Dorothy Nelson. Mary Boland
Tad ................,......-. .-.....John Mitchell
JOSH ........................s.. furnell fratt
Denton .................-...,,....' Gay Boyo
Buckley ........................... Harris
Farley ...........,...,..,..,. Madison smith
Butler ......................... ....James BahOur
Black ...............,....s...ira ira ftaruS
Al the Providence Opera House for the
first half OF the week. with matinee to-
morrow. Robert Edeson, management OF
Henry b Harris. I'm an American comedy
drama, "strongheart," by William c. De-
Mile.
A popular and talented young actor In
a play tnat Is actually novelty IN theme.
or at Ieast In what proves TO be it's theme
before the play is done.
''Strongheart starts out TO be, and for
three acts Is. a story-play,a comedy
neither OF manners nor social problems,
but simply a story-one OF the nickel IL
brary kind OF stories. II you please.
II winds up I'm the last act by Offering
problem new 10 the stage. uncommon IN
real life. but nevertheless a problem that
is promptly recognized by the audience az
native TO the soil, plausible and intense 10
the point OF the tragic.
Thus. opening with hilarious fun, con
tinuing through the complications or
plot tnat is both ancient and trivial.
"Strongheart" closes with the tragedy of
n human heart and soul The sudden
switching OF theme and motive In the last
half-hour OF the action knocks all the
conventional canons OF playwrting 10 a
fragile. but IL is so deftly contrived anc
50 sincerely done that somehow II creates
no shock 10 the harmony and CONSISTENCY
Al "A. IL o Aa akkFa 4
from the theatre 10 keep Strongheart
In memory rather longer than you would
otherwise be likely 10.
"StronghearT might have been another
"OtheHo." He il full-blooded Indian.
son OF a chief. sent 10 the eastern college
TO learn the wisdom Of the white people.
with which thereafter TO benent and up
lift his own people He is fayorite AT
college. he is socially received. he plays
on the football team. and his mental and
physical accomplishments. his good rel
him the unqualified esteem and warm
friendship Of his college mates up 10 the
point where he proposes 20 WOO ana win
for his wife one of the girls in whose
home he Is welcomed without oiscrimina-
ton. Then he discovers that there can be
no affiliation between red skin and wmte
He wins her just the same, or course,
though he loses the friendship OF =. the
whole college. But his own people as Wen
as hers are yet TO be heard from and their
call and that obligation he cannot DEFY.
last act. UP TO this point the play has
been a rollicking comedy with dash OF
melodrama. The bit OF tragedy at the
close fixes the character OF ''Strongheart.
IL is a fine finishing touch 10 portraiture
that has been in the making all through
the play. and. IL IL is curiously bold Vlo-
lation OF the common way In playwriung,
Il Is impressive and resolves what seemed
TO be only an evenings carelesE entertain
ment into something worth while.
This IL the era OF the very Young man
and the very Young woman iIs on me Sysgr yos'ng
hearts. unworldliness and primitive mo-
tive. "Strongheart." OF several or this
kind that we have seen this season, is Al
where all the young girls in all the cho-
ruses OF all the musical comedies came
from. We may now begin 10 wonder
where they find all the youngsters TO play
the boy parts in the output Of youthful
plays, in which even the heavy villain is a
beardless lad in his teens. where all OF
EN-. from the star TO the lght oomed1sr, nsr
for first or second "old man. or course,
Il may be that, like the ever young girls
In the chorus, some OF these fellows are
not so young as they look. But on the
whole. we guess they are-almost And
evidently the stage OF today Is onerins
unprecedented opportunity for, the youth
fui actor. with his full crop OF hair ana no
call for even a false moustache.
"Strongheart" presents as likely lot OF
Young fellows on tho stage as you would
care 10 look upon. Mr.. Edeson himself is
young and he has surrounded himself
with an especially fine Aot OF boys, that
look like boys that act like boys and that
undoubtedly are boys. They are shown
off TO advantage in the college quarters
getting ready a feast for their girl friends.
They are again In evidence in football
gear and later on they wear their evening
clothes like young gentlemen on the
stage. Altogether, it is a relishable dis
play Of young manhood 10 an audience,
quite apart from consideration or the
sentiments OF the matinee girl on the sub
ject.
They are all modern and up-to date
young men with quotations from the la
test burlesque and expressions that you
recognize as contemporaneousy collo-
quIal In a word they are for all the
world like bunch OF good looking boys
taken at random out OF the college set
and transplanted on TO the stage without
make UP or pretence 20 acting at all.
In this environment the character or
strongheart. unique, interesting and virile
Is developed. A trick 20 defeat the foot
ball team and at the sam. time ruin
fellow student and likewise win woman.
all I'm one is trailed by Strongheart 10 It's
source and that Is the melodramaic story
II is plausible because the Indian In him
makes strongheart deeper and wiser In
tUCn n marry lnan UlN i'ipNH. ~ AhN
course OF e. he himself is suspected or re-
sponsibility for the trick and suffers In
silence since otherwise his nearest friend
would suffer. The nobility or his charac-
ter, his devotion and his courage are fur
ther tested before the matter is cleared
up and although at the final test he
hinches. he does not fail. And II is be-
cause the result and the reward OF all
this fine. manly. primal herosm Is TO Inn
press upon him that after all he is only a
red man, an UNIT associate for his white
mates and an impossibility as a citizen,
but must return 10 his tribe and his tee
pee that you are likely 90 remember
Strongheart as one OF the most attractive
stage figures that the modern drama has
produced.
II Is not necessary to scatter praise OF
the exceptionally fine performance OF this
unusual and engaging play. II Is consum-
mately done. done with swing and 4
vim that are the fine art Of realism. Mr..
Edeson is convincing-and In a portraiture
so unfamiliar as this 20 be convinced Is 10