Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-16
The Foreign Stage.
From a Staff Correspondent.

From Staff Correspondent.
LONDON, June s.-Queerly enough, con-
sidering that one of them is based on
Bible incident, and the other on a "best
selling American novel, there promises to
be quite a striking similarity between
new play from the German, which Martin
Harvey Is about to produce at the London
Adelphi, and "Brewster's Millions" which
is duplicating, at the Hicks Theater the
big success which 1t scored across tho
water. Incidentally, 1t Is doubtful if any
other piece underlined for production in
London this season is arousing half so
much curiosity and anticipation as the Ger
man one mentioned. which is called. Great
Possessions" and is the work of Karl
Rossler.
The original Der Reiche Jungling,"
though accepted by one Of the principal
theaters of the Fatherland. has yet to be
produced there, but when it is it probably
will make a sensation, as the English
adaptation is confidently expected to do
here, for this work of Rosser's. which is
tragedy, is a sort of sequel to the New
Testament story of the Savior and the
young man who had great possessions
and who was hidden to sell all he had and
give to the poor. Report speaks highly of
1t, and the theme must have been handled
with some dexterity, otherwise the play
certainly would have been vetoed by the
British censor, who seldom consents to the
production of Biblical plays.
In Great Possessions however, the hero
is named simply Nathaniel while other
characters are Ruth Asarja and Spint-
haros the second of these parts. by the
way, being taken in the Adelphi production
by Suzanne Sheldon. Martin Harvey, of
course. is the hero and he is said to have
a golden second of
the drama when, in long soliloquy, Ma
thaniel tries to attain to the real meaning
of the Savior's injunction.
-
The story Of the play begins just at the
moment when Christ looks in sorrow at the
retreatng figure of the young man, and the
authors object is to show that in rejecting
the divine injunction ito give to the poor
Nathaniel took the wrong road. Crazed
with the problem of his wealth. he begins
to throw his possessions to the windS-in
odd similarity to the hero of the American
farce further along in the West End. But
III the German piece the end is tragic, the
owner of the great possessions" dying at
the hand of an assassin.
A queer feature of the Rossler play, too.
is the fact that the name of one of the
characters is indicated on the program
only by blank. The general belief among
people here who take an interest in this
sort of thing is that Miss de Silva Ours
Harvey, who appears as -, must have
a part resembling that Of the Greek
this is only speculation. 1t is said that
Harvey, who begins his season at the
Adephi with his American play, 1.-THE
Breed of the Treshams," has strong faith
in Great Possessions and will mount 1t
with uncommon lavishness. The scene.
however, which Is an open square In
small Palestine town, remains unchanged
throughout The drama is in four acts.
II ,rr,ilI Ho {r, Nar ,c1Hy
some time during July.
~
If Clyde Fitch Is of an appreciative dis
position. he must before this have made
grateful Acknowledgements to a leading
English actor and actress, to both Of whom
he owes rather a lot. These are Marie
Tempest and Cyril Maude. the former of
whom has made Fitch's Truth which
was only a partial success at home. one of
the emphatic hits of the present season,
while the latters work in "Toddles," the
adaptation of 'Tripplepatte," which Fitch
made for Charles Frohman has carried 1t
past its Booth performance. though on its
merits as a play it probably would have
run about a week. Finally. however the
last nights of ''Toddles'' are announced,
and when Cyril Maude reopens his new
theater. THE Playhouse in July, it will
be with 1.-The Earl of Pawtucket." the
comedy by Augustus Thomas, which en-
joyed so much favor at home.
This production at THE Playhouse" will
be uncommonly interesting, too. since, with
the exception of the star, every member of
the cast will be an American. AS might be
expected, Maude found some difficulty in
finding enough transatlantic players in
London to fill out the cast, but it Is now
complete, and with the coming of the
Thomas play the American boom in the
metropolis will get a further impetus. At
present it is going pretty strong, though it
ic "A
here and the Shuberts have been we'll ad-
vised In deciding not to try THE Squaw
Man in London for while. 'Strongheart,"
in fact, will be>ending its brief run at the
Aldwych about the time this is printed, and
1.-The Last of His Race" is also being
withdrawn from Drury Lane, after career
of only fortnight Both plays were ad-
mirably acted. and their failure must be set
down to lack of interest here in the Red
skins as a stage topic.
Meanwhile "Brewsters Millions" is
crowding the "Hicks'' nightly, while Mrs
Wigs of the Cabbage Patch" is turning
away money at Terrys, and another
American hit must be credited to Robert
Lorraine. who is playing John Tanner in
Man and Superman," at the Court Every
enc knew. of course. that his performance
had won high praise in America but Gran
vile Barker, who originally played the part
at the Court, is one of the foremost of the
younger English actors, and is difficult to
surpasS in any congenial role. That Lo-
raine's Tanner is much better perform
ance than Barker's is. however, generally
agreed leading critic says: Barker
made John Tanner an unreal parsonage,
chiefly concerned with taking opportunities
OF letting off verbal fireworks; Mr. Lorraine
contrives to make him a young man tan
gled in the meshes of intellectually. The
eccentric rendered by Mr.. Barker was
ton ahSnI faly trio TO ,,alya ;t
possible that Anne should take a violent
fancy to him. AS played by Mr. Lorraine
one feels that Anne is doing a great work
in capturing John for husband and
thereby helping him to escape from a pass
ing phase, which he had caught, like the
measles by contagion. The gain to the
piece is considerable. and is likely to make
IL more popular than ever"
In France the latest theatrical project is
that of M. Catulle Mendes, the author and
critic, rho will establish an open-air play