Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-03-07
pEsERET EVENING NEWS SATURDAY MARCH 1908

she won't. and there's an end ont.
Thus runs the adage and II is pa'ticu-
latly true when the woman happens To
be Ia Divine Sarah. She has decided
that she won't and the result rs that
Henry Bntaille's Faust the produc-
ton OF which az the Theatef Sarsih
Rernhardt all Paris was awaiting with
eager interest. has been shelved. The
talented young author may invoke the
aid OF tn courts TO enforce his con-
irnct and compel the great tfngcdienne
TO change her mind but despite ms
warlike name and bellicose reputation
~ a legal combat with such woman
he Is pretty sure to be worsted NOT
even Mephistopheles himself could ca
Ioe or terIify Sarah into playing a
role that she does not want TO play.
Ii any event, by adopting the plan OF
periodically taking UP the ranearsals
and then dropping them again the al
rectorate OF the theater could DELAY the
presentation Of the play for three year
and by that time the small STOCK OF
patience which Bataille possesses wouid
certainly be exhausted.
Meanwhile theatrical Paris is hugely
enjoying the row between the TRACE
dienue and the dranatist. sarah says
that Fatalities Faust" in its present
form Is unplayable. aud that was made
uhundantly evident TO anybody cap
able of taking a before tha-tootllgnts
view of r piece, at the rehearsols. "a :
taille. on the other hand, INSERTS tnat
There Ia nothing wrong with the play
but !, good deal Is wrong with Sarah.
From the beginning, he says. she proved
, Ia he irtl.acttbie-n new discovery,
that-cbiected TO the employment OF
certain artists IN the roles for whlch
they were best fitted, insisted ON max
ing radical changes In the play ano was
more than insistent that urtsue rfonil-
nencc should be given TO her own part
,hat Of Mephistopheles. Furthermore,
Il seems. her conception Of the eharac-
ter was very different from that of the
nuthor. Bntaille maintains thet the
| Inconsistencies OF Goethe was that OF
n gentlemanly hend with redeenlips
| features--that he stood not Tor Satall'
| the embodiment OF all that Is evil, bui
| for spirit--the spirit of negation' AS
! such. Re contends, his influence over
| Faust was OF a restraining sort oil q
I nature to warn him that there We're
/ limitations 10 his power and his super
| humanity This much-diluted, second
| fiddle sort of a devil. did not NJ IN WIN
| Sarah's actions Of the out and out "a
tanic Mcphistopheles with which she
! expected to hold Paris spellbouhd
4; Hence as can be imagined there M ,,,1
! .'ructlons" between her and Batallle
4 Neither would yield and baked in heI
| desire TO get her own way LA Divine
suspended rehearsals and has com
. menced work on another play
There is rumor afioat that inc
Faust of Batallle has been pigeon-holeo
to make way for the Faust of Edmond
Rostand. Perhaps-but have my
doubts Rostand's health Is In pre-
carious condition and despite the re
ports to the contrary l do not believe
that his play is yet completed
would not surprise me If It never wer'
completed His ''Chanticleer' has new
er yet crOwed upon the stage. although
rumor had 1t that it was finished an'
that Coquelin was to play the part o
! the cock. CURTIS BROWN.