Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-02
The Foreign Stage.

LONDON, May % 1907.
By this time James Gordon Bennett may
have learned that he has been introduced
| as one Of the characters in a new play at
| the Paris Odeon, and, if so, one wonders
how he likes 1t and whether he is disposed
to do anything about it? The piece in
which this liberty Is taken with the Ameri-
| can newspaper owner who makes his home
| in Paris. is called "L'Otage." l happened
to be present at the repetition general
! this week, and when the actor who repre-
sents Mr.. James Gordon Bennett came on
he was greeted with shout of recognition
by the audience of "first-nighters' and
journalists. his ''make-up' being faithful
copy of the originals well-known charac-
| teristics.
AS a matter of fact, the representation of
actual persons and personages in French
plays is growing quite common. In Les
| Jacobins," for instance, Count Boni de
Castellane figures quite Enthusiastically.
while 'L'Otage,' besides giving us stage
| presentment of the American .yachtsman,
| contains an ecclesiastc who is quite evil
| IDENTIFY Cardinal Richard. the makeup of
| M de Max as the aged churchman being,
| in fact, positive triumph.
} Apart from it's introduction of James
whose title means 1.-The Hostage" has
| comparatively little about it to interest
Americans, its theme Being anti-clercal-
| ism and the part it plays in French of
| fetal life. The author is Gabriel Trarieux.
and his hero is a French prefect-a rising
and ambitious politician. All his future de-
ponds on finding favor with the advanced
party in office. Let him be suspected OF
! clercalsm and he is doomed man. Yet
at the very moment when the coveted APP
| pointment of governor general of Algeria
| comes to him. the news burst upon him
like a. thunderclap that his daughter is
| about to be confirmed and to take her first
communion. For two years, the mother
| tells him in a stormy but powerful scene,
| the child has been preparing (entirely
| without his knowledge for this great
| Christian sacrifice.
| Man-like, the husband proposes compro-
| mise. Let the ceremony be postponed three
years until the girl is able to choose for
| herself. But the mother declares it i'm
possible. having made a vow to the Virgin
, that the child should be consecrated that
year a thank-offerng for her return to
health. The project is stupefied His wife
| reminds him of the promise he made at
| their marriage that he would allow her to
| raise the children In her own faith. But
| that is long ago: now there are political
| exigencies. No; no arrangement" is posi-
| Bile, and the curtain of the first act descends
| on seemingly inevitable divorce.
The venerable cardinal, to whom the
mother turns. patches up a truce, however,
and the third act transports us to Algeria.
Here we meet the American newspaper
owner who is Enthusiastically James Cor
don Bennett, and this is natural enough
considering that the latter cruises con-
| stantly in the Mediterranean. But. like BonI
de Castellane in Les Jacobins,' this trans
atlantic magnate' s part in the drama is not
considerable. and we soon return to our
Nniao r,I1tf IONS Tho do, fl,A
| governor general falls ill and the mother
| demands priest. The father demurs again.
| Finally the wife declares that If her daugh-
| ter dies unfortifed by the consola tons of
the church, she herself will seek the seclu-
! sion of a convent in expiation of her neglect,
| involuntary as it Is of Christian duty. She
proceeds to say that love for her husband
! has died within her. AS the curtain falls
| for the last time the distracted project real
| ICES that he has lost both wife and daughter
| on the altar of politics.
| Considered from the Partisan standpoint,
it is a powerful play. 1t Is doubtful, how
| ever, II Mr.. Gordon Bennett would enjoy it.
| Still his part in 1t is nothing compared with
| that accorded to Andrew Carnegie in Shaw's
| Major Barbara while John D. Rockefeller
probably would congratulate both being
let off so easily in view of his own prom
| inence in THE Lion and the Mouse"
| Keble Howard who is novelist playwright
J and dramatic critic of the London Mail,
| must be a proud young man at present. for
| little piece of his has just been paid
compliment. which is rare, if not unex-
| ampled in British theatrical annals. That
| piece in question is a curtain-raser called
| Compromising MARTHA which tells the
| story of how a young couple used old
| woman's cottage a rendezvous unbe-
| known to her. and it's humors have ap-
| pealed nightly to London theatergoers.
1t has, in fact. been played at the Hay
| market over 200 times. as first piece to
| three different plays, and though it is now
| to be withdrawn the characters are to be
| seen again in a sequel
| According to the public notion 1t appears,
| Compromising Martha left an interesting
| question unanswered, and this is disposed
| of In the new one-act piece which the
| author has written. and which is called
Martha Plays the Fairy" So far as
| known. no other "curtain-raiser' ever has
| been provided with a sequel, and it is
hoped that Howard may have been as
| happily inspired in the second piece in
| his first Martha Plays the Fairy by
| the way is to be done in front of the
| adaptation of "Josette, ma Femme" which
| Michael Morton, the American playwright,
| has made for the Haymarket under the
| title Of My Wife," and which is to be
| given next week. Counting THE Last of
! His Race" which will be seen for the first
time at Drury Lane tonight this will make
| the eighth play by American author to
| be produced in London within the month,