The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-22


\ to my alert ear comes the hasty chink
1 of dimes to get slot machine glasses
with which to magnify whatever is to
be seen.
Jack Barrymore is the titular player
in ''ToddIes," as presented in New
York; but that comes about by chance.
! Cyril Maude was the Toddles for a
year at his theatre in London. Charles
F'rohman would have sent Joseph
Coyne to play the part In New York,
but that COyne was needed to prOlong
| another success in London. So, after
a week with an Intellectual comedian
| in Washington, the role was assigned
] to Jack Barrymore for New York. The
/ strange fact about Barrymore's per-
! Torrance is that it in no way resem-
bles Cyril Maude's, as familiarized in
London, but is an imitation of the one
which Joe Coyne might have, but
didn't, give here in New York Coyne's
[eccentricities of utterance and deport-
ment are reproduced by Barrymore;
and, while Coyne is by no means a wo-
mans pet, Barrymore utilities his pc
culiarities to feminine satisfaction
particularly.
What would the girls do with their
glasses if Barrymore, when he sits up
in bed and swings his legs out from I'M
der the cOverlets, were to dangle them
calf length from nightshirt, instead
of ankle length from pajamas? AS it
is, his feet are made public for but a
fraction of a minute, to be lazily yet
all too quickly thrust into slippers. In
the drama of "Du Barry" the kings
woman held a reception abed, refusing
to get dressed, and compelling states
men, courtiers and a cardinal to give
obeiSance at her couch; and the scene
was made sensuOus by Mrs. Carter
with BelascO ingenuities. Jack Barry
more in ''TOddles'' receives unwillingly
in pajamas the visits of relatives and
friends bent on huStling him to his
wedding. This section of the play is
very antic, with Toddles getting out of
bed and in again; and the fun becomes
so acrobatic that, in one of his inn
pulses to avoid the activities of q
bridegroom, and to return to bachelor
rest, he throws a flip-hap from a sofa
clear over the beds fOotrail, falling in
cuddle among the pillows. You are
right if you infer that "Toddles" is not
an intellectual composition; but it is
good diversion. and l suppose it fixes
Jack BarrymOre's status as COM
edian.
are having Vera Komisarzhevsky in
the Russian languages and, as she
| bears the seal of the car as the fore
most actress in his kingdom, we may
regard her as an exhibit of the best
/ there is in Russia. Accepting her as
standard, you may believe me that act
/ ing in that country of subsidized thea
/ tres is not as good as it is here in the
! United States. Vera of the long other
name is a wrath of a thin woman,
with big eyes made abnormal in a
small white face by outlining them in
black paint. Her method is quietly
naturalistic, and to my mind she un-
duly discards the tricks of stagecraft
Do you remember that in "a Dolls
House" the young wife's fate depends
| much upon the contents of an expect
ed letter? Ibsen in his publication of
/ the play mentions the postal box as
being watched Historically by the WIFE
and she all but collapses when finally
/ the misSive is dropped into the recep-
| tacle. In every previous performance
of the play that 1 have seen, the box
| has been placed in full view, and the
an unseen postman has been very i'm
pressive; but Vera merely indicates
that the box is outside some draperies,
and she depends on her CALCULATIONS to
excite the audiences interest.
| Again, in the less familiar drama of
| Sudermann, ''The Fires of st. John, E"
this best Russian actress ignores an
opportunity which the author provides
for tricky yet surely dramatic effect
Vera here enacts a social outcast with
an aristocratic lover, whom she can't
expect to marry. Indeed, his wedding
with a suitable maiden is fixed for the
next day. The fires of st. John are
waning in the village, where they have
blazed in a rather pagan than Chris
tian annual celebration of unlawful
love. The forbidden sweethearts are
/ left alone. Sudermann in his writing
seats them at table, with lighted
lamp between them. and any clever
stage director would infer that the au-
thor meant to have the flame of the
| lamp, as the bOnfires outside fade out
shine into the graphic faces of the emo
| tional two lovers. Mckee Rankin
managed it that way for Nance O'Neill,
and the illumination of the visages was
potent in the plays performance that
! | saw in German. But this Russian
actress scorns theatrfc artifice. Such
an oil lamp as would be used in reality
wouldn't throw a strong light on the
faces, and she won't make use of cleo
! tricity; so she sacrifices a good effect
! because II ISM true AND Sh6 is act
ing in an almost empty house, while
E. H. Sothern fills another with Ham
llet."
l use Sothern and Hamlet for an
Illustration, because Sothern has the
ghost stalk with an electric lamp in
his visor, from which a weird light is
thrown on the spOoks face. OF course,
Vera KOmisarzhevsly could argue that
Hamlet's fathers ghost is supernat-
ural, and might be illumined in any
spectral way, while she, as the hero
inc of 1.-THE Fires of St. john" is sub
ject to mundane laws. cite the mat
ter merely to show you that this Rus
sian actress, whom you won't see, as
her monetary failure here precludes
her making a tour of the country, is a
naturalist who will not resort to mod
ern tricks of stagecraft. Critical ap-
praisai rates her as a thorough artist
but scarcely a genius. She exported
herself to this country, encouraged by
the fashionable fad of Nazimova, and
it is said that persons of the Russian
royal court financed the expedition.
X X
For the cloyed appetite of a heavy
Of Elr-ou a s7,- l.