The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-05-05
MANTELL STARS
in king LEAR
HIGH TRIBUTE PAID NOTED ACT
OR BY GREAT FALLS PAPER,
WHICH STATED HE ENTHRALL-
ED HIS AUDIENCE IN KING
LEAR.

Robert Mantell, the great tragedian
is here. This evening he presents Mac
beth. Tomorrow night King Lear is
the bill. OF his second nights perfor-
nance at Great Falls, The Tribune
said:
That still waters run deep, that the
toboggan slide into the neither regions
Is paved with soft soap, that authority
is so extraneous that dogs obeyed in
office-there are the central themes Of
Lear. AS portrayed at the Grand last
evening by Mr.. Mantell, the mad king
more than jllstifies the FOOLS criticisms.
The fool was more fit for the throne
and none SO UNIT for 1t as the king
himself
Mr.. Mantell makes this plain. In his
conception, there Is no effort to spare
Lear. His outrageous attitude toward
Cordelia is set forth without palliation.
The final rupture between father and
daughter is all the indignant Kent says
Of it.
In this, Shakespeare Is laying the
background. The plot proper does not
begin until the clash with Goneril. After
that the action runs rapidly and the
fallen monarch finally wins that SYM
pathy the auditors earlier denied him.
The Ayonese was nothing If not mat
ter of contrasts.
This production was witnessed in
Great Falls almost exclusively by cul-
tured students any review of the play
Is superf1uous. AS to Mr.. Mantelfs
work, it convinces one that William
Winter did not exaggerate when he
stamped the star Americas foremost
actor" His Lear is unsurpassed in this
generation.
The first scene was revelation. The
giant Macbeth of the evening before
was become a lean, trembling dotard.
The voice was gone and but a croak
remained. But it is in his eyes that
Mr.. Mantell excels. Never for asmo-
ment did Lear's orbs grow young.
When madness came, the fitful light
that cleaned in them wrung the heart.
The browning scene, when over Cor
delias' corpse he relates how he slew
her murderer, Booth himself could
never have elcetled. The old man
mind wanders; he chews bit of the
halter that still twines about his darl-
ing's neck; the glance grows reminis-
cent: the events he is describing are
fmpersonaI far distant. 1t Is more
than the imbecile mumbling of extreme
aee-it is approaching dissolution.
The malediction was another mag
nificent bit in which Miss Russell
shared the honors. AS in Macbeth
Sbakespearean machinery fails here
because we no longer heed curses. But
4 a. II aWf~ h1fW /.
| summed TO be fatal and the evil eye OF
any perilous. Nowhere in the Old les
lament is such flood of prophecies
| imprecations and curses poured forth
and IL there had existed the slightest
hope that Goneril would relent, the out
| cast monarch's seething sentences there
made the breach impossible. Hence
forth. his murder was only q question
OF means.
These were the two great moments
Throughout the portrayal was smooth
| and vivid. The heath scene In th'
lfourth act finds him decked with wheat
f1ourighinr q. wooden sword and twin
ing twigs in his beard. He is merry, II
the hollow merrfnient that breaks tn
heart. He meets Gloster and in tn
| news that the duke has been blindet
| in his defense, reason for space re
turns. He is, for second, the kint
again. He takes the bleeding face o
his old friend to his bosom; the mad
man confronts the blind, while Edga
looks on, wondering whether there ]
God in heaven or human pity any
where.
Miss Russell fully met expectation
as Goneril. She Is. indeed, a beant.
and i1nperious The role Ii short an
permits only one strong scene airead.
mentioned. AS Regain, Miss Scott clev
!, erly presented the contrast OF the dip
/ lomat who conceals the iron hand be
! meath the sillxen glove. She was q
j 1cruel as Goneril, but smiling. TIL
ii Cordelia of Miss Bronson was swee
J and appealing; the role calls for little
II Among the male support. Mr.. Stilwi
! as Kent and Mr.. Leiber as Edgar CAV
notable interpretations. Mr.. Lindsey