The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-07-13
SUMMONS ELVES
BY MAGIC WAND
barracks representation of
Prospero and CaIiban
Charms.

! Prospero waved his magic wand last
night over the audience that assembled
in the makai pavilion of the Young
| Hotel to hear the farewell recital of
Marshall Darrach, and, 10, the air was
peopled with sprites and elves, with
the most delicate fancies Of the Eliz-
abethan magician whose wand was his
pen. The hoarse growing of Caliban
mingled with the plaintive love tones
/ of Miranda signing for her Prince
Charming, the noble Ferdinand. The
solemn, majestic voice of Prospero dom
| mated the twentieth century audience,
and the trembling words of old Con
zalo, the faithful, awoke the affection
of the people of today as it deserved
that of his ancient friend of story.
Jolly, drunken old Stephano aroused the
same merriment last night that his i'm
PRESERVATION undoubtedly did some odd
centuries ago when he made his appear
ance in buskin and unreal makeup on
the open-air stage of the outskirts of
London with one Will Shakespeare as
stage manager.
The selection by Marshall Darrach
of The Tempest for his farewell re-
cital last night was a happy one, for
this most delightful of Shakespeare s.
comedies gives the impersonasor wide
range for the display of his talents
while the great dissinilarity of the
characters of the drama tax to the limit
the fexibility of his remarkably per
suasive voice.
Mr.. Darrach' IS interpretations and in
terpretations as he. proceeded with the
rendition of The Tempest we've not.
the least interesting part of the pros
gram. His naturalness and avoidance
of stiffness and of posing combine with
the charm Of his rich voice to delight
his hearers.
The character Of Catiban, said Mr..
Darrach in one of his explanations of
the play, is one of the most significant
of all of Shakespeare s characters. 1t
is the onlysone that the dramatist alb
solutely originated. All the rest-Por-
tia, Shyloek, Hamlet, Macbeth and the
host of others-are portraits either from
the life of Shakespeare,s time or from
history. Caiban has no prototype; he
was born in Shakespeare IS imagination
One other observation of particular
interest, though one not original with
Mr.. Darrach, the impersonator made IN
the course of the program Referring
to Prospero S farewell incarnation to
the spirits and his abjuration of his
powers over them, Mr.. Darrach stated
that this has a significance greater
than appears on the surface The
Tempest was one of the last, if not the
last, of Shakespeare S plays, and this
farewell of Prospero to his familiars IS
believed by many of the Shakespearean
critics to he also the farewell Of the
Bard of Avon to his art
The best received representation of.
the p, ogram, one that won the hearty
applause of the audience, was Mr.. Oar
raeh's vocal portrait of Caliban the
monster of the isle, whose strange con-
tortions, wild strivings against the
bondage in which he was held by
Prospero, vain efforts to understand the
cursed fate that forced him to obey.
where he would rather have stfangled,
beastlike growlings and mutterings it
took an artist to portray.
To change suddenly from the duleet
tones of Miranda to the hoarse'
grumblings of Caliban must have been
a severe tax on the vocal chords of the
impersonator, yet he shifted from one
TO the other without apparent effort,
and then to the rich,$ low voice of
Prospero, the light gibbering of Trim.
culo, the maudlin joeularisy of Stephano,
the age-weakened tremulo of old Con,
zalo. The characters of Ferdinand, Sc.
bastian, Antonio and the other lesser
characters of the Tempest were natur
ally much less ,difficalt, and it some
times took quite an effort of the imag>
ination to transform the big, hearty
man in evening dress on the platform
into the airy fairy Ariel-though, as
TO that, Mr.. Darrach explained that he
made no attempt to impersonate the
sprite ON account of certain physical
defects that rendered him unsuited to
the character.
All In all, Mr.. Darraeh delighted his
audience with his recital of the play.
He concluded by reciting three lyrics
of his own composition that were not
the least pleasing portion of the enter.
tainment. Two of these, "A Shell and
delicate love songs, while the third,
1.-TWO Ways of Looking at Things"
was humorous. Mr.. Darrach said it
was and he ought to know for he
wrote it. Really, however, it was
good, so his word may be taken for it.
! Mr.. Darrach leaves today on the
Hilonian for the Coast, whence he will
60 East to conclude his engagements
Later in the year he starts on trip
around the world, to the westward, that
may bring him to Honolulu again. Of
this, however, he cannot speak with
certainty now. He says, however, that
| he hopes some time, at least, to be able
to visit again this city where he has
been so well received.