Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-10
Coming Attractions.
New National Theater.

Richard Mansfield Is to act Peer Gynt'
every night this week at 7:t5 o'clock in
the National Theater. The opportunity to
see Peer Gynt' is one that has heretofore
been denied to all but a few who have
been in Berlin, Munich and Christiania dur
ing the occasional performances given I'M
der royal endowment Peer Gyut" was
written by Henrik Ibsen in 1867 under the
stimulus of youth and warm Italian skies.
His Pegasus deserted him after his Peer
Gynt" flight, and thereafter he became the
other Ibsen so well known to the dramatic
public, the social surgeon. Peer Gynt''
was admired as a poem OF universal quail
ity on a plane with Goethe's Faust and
Millions Paradise Lost but the breadth
and height of it staggered the European
actors and the manifold and hitherto I'M
attempted suggestions of scenes described
We're forbdding alike to the ingenuity and
the purse of the theaters. Greg found in
the lifting of the mists on the mountains,
in the fantastical death of Ase Gynt, in
the dance of Anitra and her Arabian at
PENDANTS on the moonlit sands of the des-
ert, in the fury of the Troll COLLINS antics
In the hall of the mountain king, in In
grid's plant, fair Solveig's song of the
fidelity of pure heart, and In life-shrven
Peers home coming inspiration for his two
Peer Gynt suites. The popular call for
Peer Gynt' on the stage became insistent
and 1t was presented in part, but none of
the difficult scenic displays was attempted
1t became the Rip Van Winkle of north
ern Europe
Mr. Mansfield is said to have been quietly
studying Peer Gynt'' for four or five
years. resolving the difficulties of charac-
teriZation which includes crimson youth,
worldly wisdom of middle age and the mel
low twilight of a long life, besides pro
duction" which calls for pictorial aspects
not before attempted on the stage. The
play was presented first by Mr.. Mansfield
October 50 in Chicago. 1t was announced
for one week, but later two more weeks
were added The production was revealed
with result that Peer Gynt' perform
ances were announced for a fourth and
finally a fifth week, the limit of Mr. Mans
fields stay. He had played longer in Chi
cago and to more people each evening than
had ever Henry Irving or Sarah Bernhard.
He presents in his version a third more of
Peer Gynt" than the endowed European
theaters attempt
The comedy is in five acts and fourteen
scenes. Mr.. Mansfield has elaborated the
wedding dance at Hegstad and the imps'
pranks in the cavern of the mountain king
He discloses the fight of Peer over the
mountains on the back of the wild boar,
the explosion of the yacht, the discovery
OF the mysterious horse, the lyric visions
and the dance of Anitra and her maidens.
The ship tempest-tossed in the North sea,
which strikes a rock and is shriven to
atoms and engulfed by the raging ocean,
has always been regarded as impossible,
hut Mansfield has depicted this spectacular
incident. Grieg's Peer Gynt'' music will
be played by concert orchestra. In the
cast are forty eight speaking part There
are seyenty-fi other characters ballets
and chorus. The curtain will rase at 7:45.
Mr.. Mansfield will say farewell Saturday
night in Beau Brummel"