The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-04-09
SOIHERN As DON QUIXO7E
ms INDEED rs THE SORROW
FV'L/FIGURE.

There is something quiTotios in the at
tempt to dramatise Don Quixote.' There
is -orething ~qui1otic in the attempt TO play
Dan Opiroie. But there Is something fine
and almring about qui1otism, which Ia
hardly 40 rampant on our stage that II calls
Tor rebuke. The knight Of the Sorrowful
Figure is not a matinee hero. In giving
him stage life Mr.. Sothern has mounted the
Ro,inante Of ambition and ridden forth
against these windmills called popular
apprecation.- The tilt was made at the
Lyric Theatre last night, with Paul Kester
aiding as dramatist.
And the victory was not exactly for the
wndmills even IL it was not entirely for
the knight. His lance was shattered. but
fura time at least the mills we're stopped.
sooner or later they will get y going again,
for this Don Quixote' can hardly hope for
a long stage life; but there 10 enough OF
novelty, Of pageant. Of fun and pathos in
Il 10 arrest attention for a while and call
a. cur minds once more the fact that Dull
r.nea ia the fairest woman in the world.
There have been all sorts Of trials made
At putting Cervantes's novel on the stage,
and most Of them have proved unsatis-
factory. The story Is colossal and devoid
~ plot. II is an unending string Of cpl
soles. That IL one drawback. Another
ia that the infinite gusto Of It's author In
rarrating his fantastic incidents is seldom
the possession Of the little fellows who would
noiI down his work for a evening in the
theatre, and what We read with JOY we be-
bold with v~e1ation at its absurdity.
Nr. Hester tried to meet both these dim
o,Ites, the first by introducing a plot in
his play, the second by narrating episodes
from the book in the spirit and language
nf Cervantes. II he had succeeded in the
former attempt as we'll as he did in the
latter he would have coaxed a stage piece
wtt u the novel worth going miles to see,
Put alas. he didn't!
For this plot Of his, slight as it was, was
,, terrifcally involved with Dorothed de
,Icndrdos and Don CdrdeHioS and Lu-
rind1 dc Ia Lldnds and Heaven knows who
Else, with liquid Spanish name pronounced
differently by each person on the stage,
hat one needed a copy Of who's Who in
La Mancha' to follow it.
And, as It was not worth following any
way. serving rather to detract attention
from the Don and drag out the play till
midnight than to excite interest OF knit the
acts together, it might better have been
omitted. Surely il il not too much to ask
81 an audience that they follow the DoR's
siventure' for a single evening for his
avn sake, Those adventures were what
interested the house last night.
And those adventures, such Of them as
''r. Roster selected out Of the %bewildering
altitude, he handled, on the whole, with
lsnarkable fidelity to the book. The vigil
jy the pump-and in that pump Mr.. Sothern
,'pled the Irving production with biological
ldelityl the fight in the inn, the elevating
~ Sdncho TO his goyernorship, the sorry
combat with the knight of the Silver Moon
and the Don 3 final recovery Of his sanity and
his death formed the body Of the play.
For two acts and a half there are four in
sID these episodes are staged in the spirit
4 roaring farce, with only the lean, bag
gard visage Of the Don, his cra2ed, brilliant
ewes. his pathetic decisions, to still the
laughter. But slowly this Sorrow Figure
grows into the heart, as the author meant
: should do. and when the final combat
approaches at the end OF Act ILL.,, after a
-ene Of great pomp and revel, OF golden
,oblets and serenades. the pathos Of the
knights overthrow has been prepared,
4 hush comes over the house.
-Dulcinea is the ~fairest, woman in the
rorld!' means the fallen champion, still
'aithful 10 his dream. The rest Of that
immortal speech he does not utter, He
.oes not need to. Its tragic bravery is
rotent even In the playhouse. 1t lifts the
rama at once out Of the plane Of farce
and pageant; il brings for a moment into
he theatre the "breezes that blow to US
rom old books the lofty spirit and the
,oetry Of Don QuiIote,'
The last act is on a similar level Of dig
mtg, his deeds passing the knight by in
dream review ere sanity and death came
10 him as twin brothers.
MIR. Sothern's Don was conceived in a
Ugh and consistent spirit Of the chival-
.uis nobleman gone mad. He in nc way
lloided the comic, the gretesque; he sought
n Al all times. But the crazed light never
eft his eyes. nor the gentleman his speech
and bearing. In his conception he realized
The Don Qpipoie Of our ~imaginations. In
his execution, however, perhaps from ner-
,ousness and strain, he was frequently
faulty, lapsing at times into that monoton-
ms trick Of overemphasis On every third
OF fourth word and falling always to lit
his speeches into the larger plane Of elo-
quent defamation. But on the whole, 1t
was not a performance TO quarrel with
but to praise-to praise for its sincerity,
its truth and It's final pathos.
Rowland Blackstone played SdnchO PdHEd
Donly, in this play, everybody calls him
Pointer. being very Spanish). Alasl Mr,
Blackstone gavelthe impression that he was
also playing squat tag. The habit OF the
S~hakespearian clown is hard to break.
S1rcbo is little less wonderful than the
Don. and, at times, little less pathetic, for
all he rides but a humble ass, instead OF a
New Rochelle cab horse. But Mr.. Buck
stone made him but q clown, q kind OF
lransplanted Do0berrv, Of the stage STACEY
others in the cast had little TO do, save move
IN and out Of elaborate and oolorful pictures,
mixing now and then in tumultuous fights.
As stands now, the play Ia too long. Less
oi the play will mean more OF Don Quirote,
IN fact and in spirit.