The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-26

ne IS nCACO"C ehS he likes.
 Besides the literature of Poe Hope and Deland in new plays of the week. there Is some of Somerset Maugham's in "The Noble Spaniard." The theatri- cal oddities of 1t are that Robert Ede- son. commonly regarded as too Ameri- can to ever seem like anything else, is here a Spaniard speaking English with a Castillian accent; the perBistently handsome Rose Coghlan makes herself look more than her age as a comic ma tron; and her niece. Gertrude, daugh- ter of the late Charles Coghian. repro duces the rich voice and eiocutionary skill of her aunt twenty-five years ago George Robert Edeson. Sr., dropped the Robert from his name and became the well-known comedian, 9eorge ROD ert Edeson, Jr., dropped the George and became popular in playing young American heroes. Broadway is surpris- ed now to ind him deftly spanish as 9 London young widows wOoer from Ms dr.d. and widens It's eyes. too. to SC" Gertrude Coghlan open out ner Chgh- Ian values as the widow, gcod- huLhor' ed and womanly charming. AS 10 Rose Corhlan's staId wife turned Riddy pA the unexnected sensation of having ap ardent young lover. 1t proves tha' snch A character need not be an amor our earIcature to make folks laugh only the actress is an artist
 The Coghlans and three other wo- men in this piece have to do then actJng half length; and although the hIsect,on at their middles leaves wis ihIe the portions with heads and arms on--eIong with hearts inside-the! walk. as 'twere, in @ dense fog up 10 their hips. This obseuration or the lower moieties of the players figures dov.n't cover any men. Thls IS Victorian farce" the bill says ana so I!deson's legs are not trammelled by an much as pantaloons, but are set fl ee, tn tight encasements Of the plays perlod, to be as expressive as he can make them. But the women. ike those in '"Ihe Awakening of Helena Richie, w..nr those voluminously naring skirts with distended crinoline which-it IS one of my earliest recoliectiohs- rucked my infantile mind with guesses whether t'other sex walked with legs uk., mine, or moved on some human sort Of rollers. woman's superior grace as l remember, inclined me to accept the theory of wheels.
 Hhe art of pantomime is taught from ton to toe in the dramatic schools and 1 realize fully the meanings that may bc put into all motions, on the stage if not of, by legs and feet as well as arms and hands, when l see the noble Spanlard female companions trund- ling about him in past century dra- perieS Suddenly. scene Is cleared up and illuminated as though by tia shiight, when Rose Coghldn enters. Refore this her under half has been mere, vague, mysterious support of her upper half null and void as to the slightest eXpressiyeness Now, she is l for a minute an actress down to the ground. What Is 1t makes the differ ence? Why. her feet and ankles are disclosed by her lifting of skirts wet Ly fall into a pond--and they are ! hare.
 Somerset Laugham is the English mag who has tossed out half a dozen 1 light plays within two years, you knew. and has been hailed as a genius in whimsicality. He calls "The Noble SpFhIard," here acted for the first time. "a new Victorian farce" al- though he has derived 1t from a French original It's manner of humor carr ies 1t, I should say, from come l dy's similitude Of possible life tnto burlesque rather than farce. The SranIard gets rapturcus over the Eng
 ltsh widow at Boulogna, forces nis ray into her presence, let's her fool him with the fiction that ske has husband. and thus sets him aC the task of killing enc after another of tl.e men ] of her family under the belief that 1 they are the man In the way of hIs o~ d eSrorsal. Also, he renders these meE jealous. and their wives ana aWCethtsrts variously agitated bJ seeming to woo each in her turn It k 1 of kind with the modern farce of con usality. with three variations l Thele Isn't an indecent word or thought The wording is witty enough to be calIed literary. The action has the spirit of a travesty of romantic drama In blank verse acted airily on stilts Franklin Fyles. The new coat collars. are odd and 1 attractive and t.tfk on decidedly novel