The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-26
Maude Adams New Play,

New York, Jan. 24.-Americans with
desire to esteem the stage may well
De glad that Maude Adams and Viola
Allen are Americans. Perhaps the off
stage character of actresses should not
De thought of when viewing their on
stage achievements; but few go to the
tneater TO forget what they have heard
ABOUT the artists personal repute, and
10 think only of their professional
worth. Maude Adams and Viola Allen
were born of dramatic parentage, grew
up acting, behaved decorously, and
now are women whom scandal has
never touched. They present each now
a play new to this country, and l wish
that their Americanism extended to
the choice of native compositions, in
stead of fetching 1.-The TESTERS from
France and Irene Wycherly'' from
England. However, Maude has acted
in several plays of American author
ship, and surely she ought not to be
blamed for taking ''The Testers" with
its boys role I'm which Sarah Bern
hardt did well, and after following
Sarah prosperously as youthful Napo-
leon in ''LAiglCn." And there, too.
was Peter Pans biggest success of
her career TO warrant her keeping out
of skirts a while longer.
This play of 1.-The TESTERS is not
tragic like "L'Aiglon," in which the
popularity beloved Maude was the
'Eaglet," with a soul strong to soar,
but wings weak to drop him into a
grave; nor is IL fantastic like Peter
Pam" with her as whimsey fellow of
wild dreams; but il is as odd as either
of those by beingsa comedy in rhymed
verse, at times almost touching farce
and burlesque, yet clever all the while
For a woman TO be mannish in the
guiSe of a stage lover is Weli-nigh I'M
possible. The nearest / ever saw any
actress get to it was when Charlotte
Cushman played Romeo; but the Char
lotte great in genius was also big in
physique, and deep-toned in voice, SO
that the feminine roles best suited 10
her were Lady Macbeth and Meg Mer-
rifles. Lately Sarah Bernhardt bare
~ saved Hamlet and herself from ridl-
cule. Between Charlotte's Romeo and
Sarah's Hamlet / saw no actress in
mans serious part that didn't give the
tokers a chance. But Maude Adams
plays youths, not men. and youth does
not imply masculine virility. She has
q cOntraltO voice, a slim figure,
knack of putting off girlish manners
with her petticoats, and a skill to so
initiate boyishness as not to suggest a
travesty.
An impoverished baron secludes his
motherless daughter of seventeen in
his dilapidated castle lest visitors dis
cover his poverty. She mopes and pines
for diversion, and he calls for testers
to amuse her. Among the candidates
are two young noblemen who love the
girl at first sight, and agree to AMIGA
bly, compete for her. Robert believes
that his handsome friend will capuvate
her rather than the wit and sentiment
of Rene, who renders the experiment
more conclusive by fixing false bunch
on his back. So Maude Adams as
Rene is a quaint, crooked little chap,
whom the maiden doesn't regard with
immediate favor, but whose gift OF
CAB and charm of barney are so elo-
quent that his diction flows into ballad
verse and his wooing into fiorid poetry.
Two of his declarations are hundreds
of lines in unbrOken length, in the
manner of the French classical drama,
and the actress delivers them with a
gentle subtlety that is effectual where
oratorical force would be theatric.
x
\ small and childish Consuelo Bailey
has been picked out for the heroine
and Maude Adams wOOing Consuelo is
a pretty exhibit of bOy-and-girl love-
like a real youth and maiden of a me-
diaeVal time-sO free from artificiality
in manner that it is easy 10 forget
Rene is a woman under her dOublet
and hose, and that no human beings
ever talked in hexameters that scanned
exactly and rhymed perfectly. Was il
the author who directed that the low
ers should not touch each other? Oh
did the actress bethink that, If she
were TO embrace the girl the sight
might break the illusion of boy and gir
and awake the spellbound audience to
the fact that they are two women
Anyway, when at the climax little So
lange chooses Rene to be her jester
and husband, too, the tactful artistry
of Maude Adams keeps her from the
tag-hUg of ordinary plays. AT the last