Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-12
The Foreign Stage.
epecIal Correspondence of The Star.

Special Correspondence of The Star.
LONDON, April e. 1907.
"Shall we ever see wholly satisfactory
PLAY on the theme of the Maid of Or
leans?' Thus queried w. l.. Courtney
one of the best-known English dramatic
critics. yesterday. in the course of a criti-
cism of Percy Mackayes Jeanne dare"
produced by f. II. Sothern and Julia Mar
lowe at the London Waldorf. Unlike some
of his colleagues Mr.. Courtney finds the
American piece fine poetic piece OF
work" but he is not quite satisfied with
the pfaywrtght's conception OF the heroine,
and remarks, Perhaps we shall pluck the
heart out of La Pucelle's mystery later on
when we see the other dramatic present
ments Of her story which are promised to
U.S."
Certain 1t is that Londoners should be
well up" on the Maid of Orleans before
the present Is over, for those
''other presentments' of which Mr. Court
ney speaks already number three, and no
one can tell how many more Joan of Arc"
plays there may be should the thing be-
come Epidemic. Nor Is anything more like
ly. foi runs of this sort upon a given SUBJ
5ect are of frequent occurrence In London.
Witness the many "Musketeers" of few
seasons ago, the numberless Nell
Gwynns" of season before last and the
horde Of "Hamlets' of last season. We
even had comic" Hamlets then; may we
be spared comic Joans of Arc.
One OF the managers who has play
about the Maid of Orleans almost ready
for production is Beerbohm Tree, whose
daughter Viola will portray the part of
Tree is wroth over being anticipated by
the Sothern-Marlowe combination. No
sooner. declares Tree. did he announce his
intention of doing the Parker piece than
whole shoal of other playwrights rushed
into print asserting that they had COM
pleted plays on the same subject, and SO in
order to avoid a clash and also get clear
field for his Joan" the manager of His
Majesty's decided to postpone It's produc-
ton indefinitely.
However. undeterred now by the pres
ence OF other Joans In the field. Tree pro-
poses to present his daughter the Maid
of Orleans" without loss of time. We then
shalt see II Louis N. Parker has, as w. L.
Courtney says, 'plucked the heart out of
La Pucelies mystery And If not we
must look to Justin Huntly mccarthy, or
to Charles Frohmans dramatizer Of Joan
of Arc,V whoever he may be. That, has not
been u Announced: In fact, almost thing
about this production has been made public
except that 1t will take place shortly. and
that Pauline Chase will be the Joan. /
am able to state, however on Mr.. Froh-
mans authority, that a feature of 1t will
be some rather extraordinary lighting eff
fects. with which he is now experimenting.
and that the piece viii almost certainly be
seen at the Duke Of York's Theater.
=
So far as their Jeanne dare play is
concerned, however. Mr.. Sothern and Miss
Mariowe are safe. for none of the coming
rival versions will be produced until some
time after their six weeks season at the
London Waldorf is over and done with. At
this writing their Twelfth Night" still has
to be seen, and what the critics will think
of IL also remains to be seen, but most OF
them speak heartily in praise of the per-
formances Of both American stars in
Jeanne dare though they are not i'm
pressed so generally with the merits of the
play More's the pity. accordingly, that
these players eiected to make their first
appearance here in THE Sunken Bell"
which the reviewers with practically one
Soicerdescribed to their readers as tedious
and in which they declared that neither
Mr.. Sothern nor Miss Marlowe appeared to
advantage.
Some time ago, 1t may be remembered,
the great English Shakespearean scholar
Sidney Lee, stated that English was better
taught and better spoken In America than
in England. OF course this was not popu-
lar thing to say and he was severely de
nounced' for it, But he stuck to 1t all the
same. and now these two American stars
are furnishing evidence that he was right
1t has been noted that among the words
of which their pronunciation differs from
what Is commonly accepted as correct in
England is the past of the verb ito eat"
In England 1t is almost universally pro-
rounced ct and written eat" Miss
Mar!owe and Mr.. Sothern pronounce it
Ike eight" and evidently write it ate"
'fts y1-N tNahf
writes an English critic ito the ancient
ways: the authorized version of the Bible
has not eat but ate and there is no
reason TO suppose the sound did not cor
respond"
Madame Eleanor Cleaver Simon, formerly
OF Detroit, gave the second of her admit
rabie song recitals, with her husband, lingo
Simon, here this week. These recitals have
attracted good deal of attention from
discriminating critics, for the songs Sc
iected were of unusually choice quality and
by no means common-includng almost
forgotten gems by such composers as Gull
lauIne de Machault $3.50 A. d. and Or
lando di Lasso QJ6O) and Purcell as we'll
as Handel, Gluck. Schubert and Brahms
the kind OF music that requires interpreters
OF rare skill and refinement Both recitals
were notable artistic success.
Another American artist of much more
than. ordinary taste and effectiveness Is
Miss Fielding Rosells. who gave recital
this week at Bechstein Hall, assisted by
three brilliant young Polish boys: Leo,
Mischief and Jan CherniaYsky Miss Ro-
selle's program included some of the most
delightful and less familiar songs of Schu-
mann. Schubert and Hugo Wolf. American
composers were represented by the work
of L. A. Mcdowell and George Chad
wick The artist won hearty approval from
critics and public alike.