The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-29

New York, March 27.-Eight actresses
get into fresh publicity here by means
OF new plays; but among them Mar
saret Anglin and Vera Komisarzhev-
sky don't do it by impersonating the
mother or Christ. as both meant TO, but
by Margaret forbidding Vera from do
ing II. In Sister Beatrice" as per-
formed by the Russian actress in the
land of the car, a nun runs away from
convent with her lover, and leaves
her nun clothes of vowed maidenhood
at the feet of statue of the Holy Vr-
GIN Thereupon, the Madonna WHITES
the image. steps down from the pedes-
tai, puts on the recreant sisters garb
ilild takes her place in the routine life
The convent. The other inmates, be-
heving her to be Beatrice. and at
tributing the disappearance of the
statue TO her sin, whip her with rods
that turn miraculously into lilies; after
which the fugitive returns 10 die in
her cell, and the Virgin 10 her marble
pose.
Miss Komisarzhevsky announced this
dangerously religious character as a
climax of her New York engagement,
but Miss Anglin had bought the right
10 act IL i'm America exclusively, and
she made the laws hand stop the rival
woman in an Introduction of the Moth
er OF Christ awakened 70 life in stage
play. Margaret is a shrewd woman of
the show business. she bought THE
Great Divide" when Henry Miller
wouldn't, and insisted on his producing
X, thus enriching herself sufficiently 10
acquire Sister Beatrice" and other
pieces. why should she let another
actress skim the cream off that pan of
milk" says one. She's afraid 10 let
us view a greater actress first in the
part" says another. What's sure, is
that we won't see the Mother of Christ
reincarnated in American stage make
believe until Margaret Anglin is ready
to give ii to us.
X X
:. However, we get a Christ himself in
srrhe Servant in the House." the most
astounding, / think, of all the dramas
which devout Christians have yet had
10 accept or reject as either shocking
y sacrilegious or worshipfully pious.
The stage is set for room in an Eng
lish country vicarage. The walls are
hung with religious pictures, among
which the largest is copy of one of
the traditional portraits of Jesus. A
butler has been brought from India
AS the curtain rises, this new servant
in the house" is busy at a sideboard.
An Oriental robe Grapes the tail fig
ure and. as il stands with its back to
the audience, it makes it look like a
priest performing rites at an altar of
Buddha rather than a servant making
coffee for his employers breakfast
This odd butler exchanges a few sem
fences with a minor servant, who
seems cowed by something strange and
weird in his new boss, and this sense
of portentOusness is conveyed to the
audience. There is dramatic suspense
too, until the figure turns to face the
. people, and then a silence of amaze
ment ensues; for there stands forth
Jesus Christ, fashioned after the paint
ed picture on the wall, but awesOmely
more than that-a Sentient embOdi-
ment of the Son of God as Christians
have learned to imagine him.
II is not strange that Charles Ram
Kennedy. Walter Hampden and Henry
sailler, author, actor and producer of
ebutler in a likeness of Christ to serve
with benign dignity a breakfast of
toast. sausage and coffee to an Eng
fish vicar and his wife, dared not in
troduce him firstly TO satirical, cynical
and mostly saTdOnic New York theat-
rical first nighters: and maybe they
would have felt no safer if they could
have presented him initially TO a con-
gregation in a church. What they Gid
was TO begin with an afternoon audi
ence of some scholarly men and many
more women, including the profession