The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-04-13
xzpri, 3, 1906.

politan has never held more brilliant
nor q more representative audience.
just one adverse criticism: Peaple saun
tered in until half after 8, when the
performance was scheduled for Z 40.
The hubbub of seating marred the first
act.
The Induction is dispensed with
Ito quote from itself, g pastime pass
ing excellent and yet wholly extra
neous to the action. The Blanca scenes
are slashed, a proceeding which brings
no regret, not even from the philolo-
gists, for he suspects that Shakspere
did not write them. Then, to be sure,
the gross jests are deity cut. But the
innovation Of Mr.. Sothern' IS stage YER
sion lies not in omission, but commits
sion. The business " introduced sim
ply staggers the man accustomed to the
production Of the play as comedy Of
manners with farcicai interludes. Mr.
Sothern interprets the piece as pure
farce, and I feel certain that he is
right, theatrical tradition notwithstand-
ing. Perhaps the business goes too
Ear, as in the pantomimic scene, when
the famished Katherine clumps with
ner wooden shoes into the dining hall
IN search of food and then steals out
when she discovers her lordly spons Isl,
snoring by the freside. Still the house
! enjoyed every minute of it. and who
snail al set a limit to farces
lhat the farce was mounted with
pissnIesque extravaganza and with ex-
qulslte attention to detail goes without
saying to those who witnessed last
n neaa s..repertory. 1t is a pleasure to
note that the walking'' men and
ny Mpmen are Welltrained and efficient.
aaey caught the farcical mood, and
were not the blocks and stones and
l / L
one is accustomed in ordinary Tsunes ),
ASIDE from the stellar roles. the char.
acIers Go not offer great opportunities:
put they were, almost without excen.
1lon,' adequately presented, altho in no
case was the work superlative Mr.
harris, Mr.. Lewis, Mr.. Coleman. M
Eric and Miss Harrington gave inteIli.
gent and sympathetic impersonations
MI. Buckstone, capable actor tho he
IS, had too much Of the sardonic and
tee grotesque IN his Grumio, fellow
ties. i'aD'e comic possible
But Mr.. Sothern gets the fun out OF
Petruchlo. Impossible as man. deli
elous as farce type, Mr., Sothern !
Ietrucnlo preserves a certain manly
charm thruout his trough honsey 90
capades If quick change of facia
expression, a bit Of business y by thu
the way of aside, reveals his love fol
his Katherine even when he = is mos
bombastic and inexorable. Test anG
animal spirits, together with a sort OF
Whlms1cai tenderness, glow thru every
hber OF his bulk and being. 1T is a.
once a masterful and a mastery de
Iineation - W
Miss Marlowe as Kate, the shrew-
what an absurd idea! We. who know
and love her as the Shaksperean hero
Inc OF tragedy and high comedy. can
we imagine her vixen?
"A woman married lis like foun
tain troubled,
Muddy, discerning, thick, beref
of beauty, p
Miss -Marlowe's representation give
the lie to the couplet. She creates ,
new katherine, not shrewish shrev
nor vixenish vixen. The more sh,
!. storms, the more lovely she appears
the more disheveled and. negligee, thu
more enhancing. This is the. paradox
Hence her attractiveness in the earl,
, scenes is a blemish in histrionic art
! whereas it adds cumulatively. as tn
: shrewishness bends, yields, and disap
pears. Fortunately, even in these day
of tense dramaturgic psychology, nc
body has thought of tsThe Tanning O
|, the Shrew" as a problem play, and cor
| seouently nobody has been. seriousl
, alarmed by the moral Of Wifely obedi
Z ence tackled on at the end. Everyone
3 however, who was spectator at las
e night IS frolic, carried sawaysa memor
: Of stheWsweet woman illness which Mis-
5 Marlowe infused into the closin
l speech. 1T was a benedietion to a
evening of innocent and wholesom
mirth. M. LIE R. Arnold.