The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-10-26
DER TEUFEL IN TOPEKA.
Great Variance of Opinions Concern
ing the Play. 4aoi


brought to Topeka by one of the Saw
age companies for two performances at
the Grand Saturday, are widely con-
Trajectory. People seem either to have
liked it immensely, not at all And
this may be the test of strength In
play as in a personality.
Der TeufeI, by Franz Molnar, a Hun
garian newspaper writer. was first pro-
duced in Vienna last season and Gre
ated a considerable stir on the con-
tinent. Its presentation. simultaneous
~ this fall, by Mr.. Harrison Grey
Fiske's and by Mr.. Henry w. Savages
companies. was unquestionably the
event of the theatrical season in New
York. Although Mr.. Savage purchas-
ed the American rights to the play
some flaw in the copyright law puts IL
at the mercy of any pirate manager
and as a result beside the Fiske COM
pany in New York and the Savage
companies, stock companies and less
organizations everywhere are present
inc it.
The most notable thing about the
Topeka presentation of The Devil was
that 1t came here in its first year. NOW
and then when play that was tried on
the dog in Chicago, has little time to
kill before 1T gets into New York we
see it in Topeka (the tall OF the dog,
so to speak, before Manhattan has
chance to make or break it with its
final pronouncement. Last year for In
stance, we saw Mr.. Otis Skinner in the
Honor of the Family before New York
did. And New York is just deciding
this fall, what Topeka thought last
y&ar, that Glorious Betsy and Wildfire,
the plays in which Miss Mary Manner
ing and Miss Lillian Russell were seen
here, won't GO. But never, until The
Devil, in the memory of man, was
play first produced in New York and
with tuual success, seen In Topeka
within the same season.
The De III inevitably brings to the
minds of those who have read or seen
it, The Servant in The House by
successful plays of last year; not yet
presented in this neck O. the woods
The two plays are exactly Opposite IN
theme, and the coincidence OF their
production, at the same time but on OIL
ferent continents, remarkable. Both are
modern morality plays, both hlghly
symbolical, and The Servant in the
House has for its principal character
a reincarnation of Jesus. and STANDS
for the potency Of the good ldea, the
uplifting influence. The Devil is a
somewhat moderniZed Mephisto, the
personifcation of evil, the wicked
thought embodied, the base intention
visualized, temptation in human FORM
At that, the effect of the two plays
is not dissimilar. The Devil also points
its moral, but it teaches by antithesis
1t Is startling, and can not ran 70 De
salutary, to hear the familiar indlvld-
ualistic arguments of the nesnly
school, of modern problem plays and
fiction, falling from the lips of the IN
carnation of evil All the usual theor-
les which we have learned to applaud
in play and novel in order to prove that
we are liberal" modern" that We
understand the artistic temperament
and are not mere grubbing Philistines,
The Devil makes use or lure
the man and the woman who nave come
under his influence to the suppression
kte hafr n
of their trust. 1t is the old story OF
the Garden of Eden again"the ser
pent, Adam and Eve. and as Karl ana
Olga leave the stage in one another
arms and the final curtain descends II
is not the DEVILS sneer of triumph
which rings in ones ears, but the di-
vine sentence: Cursed is the ground
for thy sake for dust thou art
and unto dust shalt thou return"
The play was adequately. presented IN
Topeka, well acted and we'll staged. Mi:
Campbell Gollan in the title role lacked
something. perhaps, in subtlety and
finesse, and failed to realize perfectly
the authors conception of the EVIL
spirit made manifest, the hell, winch
as George Eliot said of the Kingdom
of heaven. is not without us, as fact,
but within us, as great yearnlng-
Nevertheless his characterization was
forcible and effective. and his reading
convincing even if he seemed not, some
times. sufficiently to efface himself, and
to let the audience see, as the play
wright evidently intended, that 1t was
the thought of the others who called
the Devil into existence. rather than
he who suggested the thought. Miss
Adele Block as Frau Hoffman realized
the part physically, temperamentaliy
and intellectually and gave fine and
careful study of a woman of the world,
beautiful, passionate. self-indulgent but
restrained by the niceties of conven-
ton, religious training and good taste
the ethics of her kind-in the agonizing
throes of temptation. Kathryn Mar
shall as Mimi, the model, was as pa
thetic and engaging as the author him.
self could have imagined her and MI
Richard Thornton as Karl Mahler, the
artist. though rather immature, did not
mar the performance which was, on the
whole, satisfactory.
DIR. PARKHURST RESIGNS.