The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-31

thor and the actress led him out by the hand at about the doxenth curtain call on the opening night, yet 1t was too plain to be doubted that Ahe actress was considerably an authorcss and stage dirsctress fin this play of eager emotionaIism and Spectacular ronnant- icism.
 Like most of the pretentious drauaas nowadays. # begins with the stage black blank. Slowly the lights of ian- terms give . dim view of figures nov ing to and fro. while. priests voices tell that the people are crowded in front of q church to see Kassa of Kem- in Hungary. Khssa fs . holy virgin through whom miracles are wrought and by royal mandate any man who touches her carnaliy shall be put to death. because such sacrileEe would destroy her religious potency. The music of worship accompanies the entrance of Mrs. Carter as this white robed prtestess while the congregation bows in awe and a spotlight flashes through the gloom to illumine her IS she stands in the elevated portal of the church. That Is a picturesque dis closure of Kassa. let me tell you. and the initial gathering of the actress's two minutes of ovation that seemed like ten.
 Dawn sends the people into the churcn to mass. leaving Kassa out side, and to her comes a boy who ha, bitually reads legends to her. This time the tale is of butterfly that wings Its way from a rosebush to wildwood, and returns from it's ad- venturous night to dfe. Now. Kassa Is not sanctffed wholly to the vow under which, at vespers on this very day. she is to- enter a cIoister for life. She yearns to know what is beyond the hills that shut in the nunnery from the world. She wishes that. like the butterfly. she might make a flight. ''Why notT asks Prinve Beia Balva- nosi. He will take her of and bring her back in time for vespers. She Is so ignorantly innocent that she doesn't know she loves this tefnpter. nor sus- peot him of an evil design. So she let's him s1ead her away and astray. Thus does the play gets under head way that promises dramatic m tic excises nas time with Bella, followed by bad time,
 Five years have passed whom we see her, next. Bela,-4nstead of taking her back to the nunnery for lifelong vir-
 gin seclusion, made a solemn declara-
 ton with her on cross that they. were husband and wife: and now she is In secluded mountain home with a son of three years and as many months as are respectable. She is abandoned by her despoiler, whom she still loves with an absurd fidelity and she has q plate set for him on every meal table. This evening he really comes to tell her that she isn't his wife legally and to discard her brutaily. A simuitane- ous visitor is another 1ihertine, Zicx- eros varsoya, enemy of Bella. and de- sirous of getting him condemned to death for desecratfng the chaste me- dium sof miracles. Tn the hateful clash between the sooundrels the heart of the woman is crushed. at the end of the fourth act. The wo- man can save her boys father from capital punishment by delivering her self to his foe. and she says she will do It; but when Bella Is safe away she turns on the other scoundrel, and cries: Nov take me; but If you do VIII de- nounce yen to your death for dehling, as he did. a woman chosen by God for chastity.H Thus set free. she wan ders back demented to the church, fan cyfng that the vesper bells are those of the day of her departure five years ago. I have described the merits of Mr. Longs composition, and they are strong; but there is q fault that com pels the reviewers to damn 1t. s'Kassa" fs not moving drama but a notion less monologue. The third and fourth acts occupy more than an hour, and Of that time Mrs. Carter'ss own voice, nearfyeto the exclusion of others. runs through q ranl1e of the intensest emo- tionalism. A sporting man with a stop watch told me that out, of, sixty-eight mfnusea sife was vocal, very violently, too during fifty-seven. Mfr. Jaong has permitted. his admiration of Mrs, Car terss genius to overwhelm his reason QFr. urT Io an Af auent in flights of melodranatic dic- ton. as to leave no room for devel- opusent of other characters. of oppos- ing forces, or of any solid basis for her towering achievement. That is pity, but it isstrus 4...
 Way" Eugene Waiter wrote, 1t with Charlotte walker in mind for its her oine and married her after placing the play with Beiasco; so the author fought hard against the substitution of Fran ees Etarrs the managers newest pro- tege, They are obdurate men, those two geniuses, and 1t may be true that their disagreement was settled only when. as gossipped. Walter conceded Miss Starr to balance Belasco's prom iSe to alter not so much as word in the play. Which would go to show that Btlasco. having scanned the the atrica1 stream with wary eyes and mo- ted the number of craft sailing pros- peronsly with the wind and current of modern literalisnH concluded to launch that build of a dramRtic vessel him- self and not rig 1t with any of his cus- tomary theatric effects or heart inter- ests.
 sThe Easiest Way" is a photophono- graphic portrayal of a vicious show girf's life. Two extravaganzas of the costiiest sort are displaying to New Workers the Parisian orgies at the Moulin Rouge and the Abbaye: next week we shall have similar pictures taken from our own Rectors; and the depletion of slum life has risen to the undlsputably fine art of Mrs. Fiske's l Salvation Nell in a startlingly exact l reproduction of low-level wickedness in c Bowery bar room; while now along | comes Walters sirenic show girl l framed. hung and lighted dexterously |