The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-05

Inc ldnu Oh the Tree. says ne-
And the home of the brave" says
she.
A third drama abbreviated in vaude-
vile this week is Hamlet" In the
Harlem portion of New York's judg
ment, Paul McAllister is a great actor.
There is no need to dispute about that
here now. Paul meant to make Shakes
peare's most metaphysical tragedy the
main thing in a stock company's sum-
mer, but bis usually faithful following
did not rally, and he stopped last Sat
urday to start again on Monday in a
variety house near by with a tabloid
version of Hamlet Edwin Booth and
/ were there on the first Afternoon.
did not see Booth, but / cannot doubt
that he got present if he could. When
alive he shortened the play to three
hours. but here is a half-hour whack
at 1t: and not merely recitation of
passages, but a performance with four
teen characters impersonated. 1t is Gu
rious. 1 think it comic. But the au-
dience as a body deems ii awesome.
Paul knows how to fix that. Addition
ally, he desires to convince managers
and reviewers, by proof of sample, that
the whole of his Hamlet would be meri-
torious. l saw no manager when l
was there, and the newspapers have
given no attention to the subject
Still / cannot think a squeeze of
Hamlet" into thirty minutes is not a
thing to describe. The abbreviation be-
gins with the melancholy prince up
braiding his mother for her hasty mar
riage with his uncle. When the ghost
appears it is not to whet the sons
almost blunted purpose" but to tell
about his own foul and most unnat-
ural murder" which Is at once and
briefly enacted by the players. Ophe-
lit pops in and out. staying but long
enough to show that she is Hamlet's
sweetheart gone daft Polonius is killed
before he can say twenty words, the
king gets no time for remorse. Laertes
is permitted barely to introduce him
self as Ophelia's vengeful brother, and
there is not moment to spare for her
burial
Edward II. Sothern's Hamlet at the
usual Broadway 81 increased to So, to
cover Julia Marlowe's Ophelia too, is
the only noteworthy PRESERVATION of the
grouchy prince since Booth died; and
| suppose that less than per cen of
Paul McAllisterS audience had ever
seen the tragedy acted or read it. The
smaller cities and larger villages get
more of Shakespeare on their stages
from touring actors in a year than the
Harlemites of New York do in ten.
However, Paul knows his admirers, and
so the sediment in this boiling down of
Hamlet" might appropriately be enti-
tied The Sleuth and the Slouch," as
the residum of plot contains only of
the ghosts assassination tip to the
prince. that young amateur detective
working of ''the third degree" on the
guilty King Claudius. by having his
W1N rRe.ff TO- Al
ers, followed by his exposure and pun
ishment. No heartier applause is heard
often in a theatre than that which
Paul gets at the point where he proves
that the plays the thing to catch the
conscience of this king" His declama-
ton OF brevitieS from the famous So
liloquies have puzzled without interest
ing; they have not cared for the tran
STORY Ophelia; but the visits of the
ghost. accompanied by tremendous
thunder, have reused them some; and
when the king frames up the scheme
to poison the prince both outside and
inside by rubbing a deadly substance
on his adversary's foil in the fencing
match. and putting knockout drops in
his cup, the house was silent with en-
grossment from the orchestra's rail to
gallery's top row. At least II was so
yesterday afternoon. when femininity
was predominant; but as to the even
ings l inquired of an usher.
'Oh, the king gets some Kisses when
he fixes the double dope for Mr.. Meal
lister" was the reply. Last night a
kid in the gallery yelled Don't drink,
Paul. when he took the knockout mug;
and the night before fool geezer, right
down here in the orkestry, when the pi-
zen-pointed sword was rung in on Nc
Ally, sung out, Take a tip from me,
Hamlet-that tips fixed.''
Those chaps had not ever heard of
the kings dirty work against Hamlet,
and il displeased them very much.
The fencing match in Hamlet" with
the slender foils rubbing and rafting
lightly, withSa weak lunge once in a
while, is not calculated to excite a
vaudeville audience like good old two
Cp-out-two-down combat with broad
swords; and it cannot take the place
of the suddenly disdained gunplay of
melodrama, but there Is an outbreak
of applause when the poisoned steel is
transferred to Hamlet, another when
he punctures the king with it, and a
third when the queen drinks from the