The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-10-04
"The Devil" and ain a Woman's
Power"
The devil is coming.

The devil is coming.
NOT as Faust, nor as a horned red
eloaked, birthstone breathing indi-
vidual, but as a very live, cookbook
ing, healthy and clever man of the
world. 1.-The Devil' is to be at the
Grand for the last half of the coming
week.
THE Devil" comes direct from New
York. 1t is the play that has set that
great theatrical metropolis into a
frenzy Of excitement. 1t has fascinat-
ed staid old Boston even, and has
taken Philadelphia and other large
eastern cities by storm. Last week the
play was presented in Denver to ca
pacity houses at the Curtis. San Fran
cisco has had the play, and Pelton &
Shutter take the first round in Salt
Lake in presenting the piece. here for
local playgoers.
The play is one of the most daring
and lurid efforts that has come from
the pen of continental playwrights the
past season. 1t is not so much the
theme of The Devil as the clever
dialogue that has made the reputation
the play has obtained in this country
in a few short weeks The play is
epigramatic and every act is filled with
keen, clever sentences. In the produc-
ton of the piece the devil appears in
the form of a versatile, cynical doc
tor, a polished man about town seen
ingly. His initial entrance is made in
the first act when IN an artists studio
the artist and a respectable married
woman have met by appointment for
the latter to sit for a portrait. The
two were sweethearts in the years that
have passed The woman has married
a wealthy but very commonplace sort
of fellow-a banker. For six years she
and the artist have practically avoid
ed each other, there being something
in the minds and hearts of each that
portended a reawakening of the old
love if opportunity presented. The wo-
man has been brought to the studio
by her husband and left for the por-
trait sitting. She has removed her
waist when the doctor appears sudden
ly, and representing himself as an old
friend of the artists assumes a free
and easy manner toward the woman
and processes to misunderstood the
purpose for which she is in the studio
partially disrobed. In vain the artist
insulted. The Devil refuses to con-
compromising, and lightly at that.
Quite frankly he urges the woman TO
a more courageous attitude. toward the
artist, whom he accuses her of loving.
You are young and you are lovers, -
he tells them. Enjoy yourselves and
your lives" The artist is engaged TO
marry a woman he does not love, and
the action Of the play is further COM
plicated by the presence now and then
of a poor, half-starved little artist s
model in the artists studio. The Devil
takes her gently from the studio.
The cleverneSs of the lines abound
ing throughout the play is remarkable.
In the first act the Devil, speaking to
the woman he has found in the studio
says: 81 know why you are here"
only to have my portrait painted, q"
she replies quickly. Cynically, the
Devil replies: "Of course, and-but the
other day 1 met lady at the dentists,
who came only to have her teeth
pulled, and she actually permitted the
dentist to draw perfectly sound
tooth, for appearances sake"
1.-The Devil goes on at the Grand