Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1908-11-08
The Devil is Coming Here.

The Devil is Coming Here.
 The important announcement that Henry w. Savage is to offer the sen satonal comedy success, The Devil <, tDer TeufeD", in Pine Bluff on Thurs l day, November F is the topic over shadowing all others in the days events The interest which this play has aroused in the Eastern cities k entirely without precedent, and the press and public, and even the pulpit have WaXed warm in discussing every phase of the thought which has been 1 wrought out in the astonishing dra matic work of the Hungarian play wright. The Devil which was first produced in Buda Pesth in the spring Of 190T was written by Franz Mol mar, q Hungarian journalist. The unusual nature of the theme and his daring treatment soon became the subject of the hour in tue European capitals. The play was shortly after transplanted to vienna, where at the success.
 Henry W. Savage. through his Euyopean agents, secured by the pay ment of large royalties the exclusive l American rights. and engaged the services of Herr Julius HerZka, the | friend and collaboration of the author in the German translation, to come to tie United States and superintend the production here How Mr. Savage was harassed by piratanical man. ager. who, taking advantage of flaw in the copyright treaty between the United States and Hungary, rush. ed out q Sarbled version of Herr Molnars work, and how he met and confounded this unscrupulous knave by making a production of The De- vii" at the Garden Theater, New York, at 12 hours notice, has been told Ill the news dispatches, and is now d matter of theatrical history. To pro- 1 teet his property and the public from these unauthorized productions, which do not correctly present the spirit or | the text of Herr Molnars great play. Mir. Savage offers here an exact du- plicate of the Garden Theater pro- duction, with precisely as competent a cast of players and the same carn | f,,J fn foiI O-ti aba 1 acterized all the productions with which his name has been associated. MT. Savage has always kept faith with the public; they have come to understand his announcements are not merely the hollow words of snowman but the faithful promise of a man who has done things.
 The company to present The De vii" here contains such we'll known players as Campbell Gollan, late lead ing support Of David Wartield ill The Music Master' Adele Block, an actress of beauty and achievements; Richard Thornton; Carroll Daily; Saidee Williams, GathrNn Marshall, Nrda le GroiX. Phyllis Darlington, Jean Barnett, Helen C. Bick and Virsia Rolette.
 The Devil" is a psychological sa tire. It is play of the school of 1 lbsen. George Bernard Shaw and Hauptman, but ill it's rapier-like wit, it's caustic humor. it's blistering sar- easm it is far and away in advance of the symbolic drama as represented by these authors. The devil is pre- scented as a man of the world, in the conventional dress of the day, wh comes into the scenes and sweeps everything before him. His whole ca reer is one of evil. Beginning by in stilling poison into the lives of two people into whose existence he in sinuates himself. he carries them for ward to the catastrophe through malevolant cunning and subtitle so- 'phistrics which fairly take away ones breath. One must listen to his Satan lc reasoning to appreciate the au thor's clcverness. He will then real ize the lesson the dramatist has driv- en home with such telling force. that sin Ts omnipotent. and that the slight est welding to the whisperinss of the tempter may result in our undoing.
 But the play conveys this without preaching ana without sermonizing It is a liberal ciuc2tion in the drama, and the appearance of Mir. Savage's the season.