The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-10-12
"VAsTA HERNE."

| Before house not large in number.
and not all that could be desired in somt
| other respects, Mrs. Leslie Carter las
night presented the Edward Peple play
Nasta' Herne,' at the Salt Lake the
! atre. And it is not believed she has evel
/ presented SO strong a play, nor ever in
teTpreted itfe'S emotions so impressively
II IS one Of the plays by common con
sent expected of Mrs. Carter. A talented
/ girl with genius for writing, fails t
| flnd market for her stories, and comes
TO the point of death by cold and hunger
There Hartley BellaiTe, a publisher, found
her, and warmed and fed her-ant
eXacted the price pure women cannot
pay Then he drugged her with opium
and sold the stories that came from hel
drug-eXcited brain-tO his great enrich
ment.
After two years Of bodily and mental
serYitude to Bellaire, Vasta meets Dr.
Aaury, and loves him. Maury tries to
rescue the girl Bellaire insists on keep
ing her captive. She risks everything Oh
the single die, and confesses her life Sc
cret to Maury. Although his first i'm
pulse is to forgive all one arrow from
Bellaire's bow wounds him, and he knows
he would always remember this woman
was mistress to another man. In the
parOXysm of realization, NaSta makes
sure her lover will never return. and
tells him she does not love him; that she
has followed the common habit of the
opium fiend, and lied to him. that she is
lower and more base than he can dream.
And he goes away.
The fourth and final act brings him
back, and the woman dies in his arms.
1t is all very gruesOme, very horrible.
But 1t is lighted with more flashes of the
writer's genius than any recent play pos
sesses- It is the philosophy of lola or
of Wilde-dOne into a Succession of cpl
grams. Many of them are worth repeat
ing.
At the close of the second act, when
the woman fights Bellaire for her free
don hn A Lee
will walk the straight, white road; and if
she fall, some man has tTipped her feet.
To reach her love she'll walk across a
bridge of tears. Tear down her bridge
and she will swim to shore"
And later, when she has made reveal
ton of her past, she cries to the man who
blasted her life; THE bridge is down,
and / can't swim But I'll not drown.
I'll not drown with your
When MauTy asks the secrets of her
past she pleads: why break the peace
of a dead-and-buried yesterday"
1t is impossible to recall even a 1.-THE
Of these gems, these epigrams that are
wholly worthy of preserving. Many of
them deserve to live in permanent litera-
ture.
The play contemplates a heroine of
statuesque beauty, as well as one of wit.
And it will be admitted Mrs Carter full
fills both requirements The years make
no apparent impression upon her And
the years have brought her with each
her art Splendid, thrilling, dynamic,
with a voice Of rare clearness and power.
with a carriage and gesture impressive,
and with tone and glance and action ire
mendOusly convincing. Mrs. Carter has
presented easily her greatest play.
In such efforts as "DU Barry" the
cOurtesan character of the original
seemed gratuitOuSly presented. In Vas
ia Herne" she brings a woman essentially
good. And if her feet have tangled in the
perfumed grasses, she at least offsets its
influence with a terrible lesson. It Is
hoped no one in the house needed d
warning against opium. But if such soul
were there, it must SILVER in terror at the
true, the certain triumph of the drug.
The company is small, and not very
good. The Dr. MaUTy of the play, pre-
scented by John Glendenning, is far from
the being by right entitled to a conquest
val, played by E. J. Radcliffe, is bet
ter, but hOpelessly Outclassed by the star.
And the rest are common.
Only praise can be spoken OF the play S
tnvesuture. The sCenery-there are three
settings-is impressively good. The gowns
worn by Mrs. Carter are of the stunning
type she always presents-and they share
the solitary quality of their weaTer.
Vasta Herne will go the entire week
with a Saturday matinee.
The music of the orchestra, under Mr..
Fred Midgley's direction, was especially
enjoyable. This is it's order:
Overture-"FTetSChut &C. NJ. V. Weber
'LOhengrin' ..........R. Wagner
Harp sOlO-SeleCted.. Observation-Disclosures.
Miss Josephine Morrison.
Part of Nut Cracker Suite.,,.........
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. p. TschaikOwsky
Henry VIII Ballet advertisement Nos.
", V, VI -...............C. Saint Saens
The Swan...................-. Saint Saens
Serenade. Victor Herbert
And if frequent recalls be any criterion,
the play was VOL received