The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-12-20

are omitted because Becky is a living,
breathing personality to practically the
whole English speaking world and,
doubtless, will always be. And Mrs
Fiske's performance is simply physi-
cal presentation of a character that all
OF us have known all our lives.
After having seen last nights per-
Torrance ii is difficult to decide which
is the more admirable-Mrs Fiske, the
with Mr.. Fiske, she actually produces.
directs. puts on in a word, all the
plays in which she appears-one OF the
all too few literally independent pro-
ducing managers of our stage And
the company with which she has sur
rounded herself Is SO astoundingly
good that even when she is not on, the
performance is a thing of delight to
the chronic theatre-goer, who has
grown weary to death of companies
consisting of star and some other
people. In the play Becky does one
kindly, generous act, hard and shallow,
grasping and ambitious as she is; in
real life, the life of the stage, Mrs.
Fiske is SO re-eminently good, so
big, that she has given the parts of
! the characters opposite to and with
| her to men and women who set the
last bit of humor or dramatic strength
out Of them, without the least fea,
lest they distract the attention of the
house from her-''steal the show" as
| they call 1t.
And we'll can she afford to have
spite of her almost striking lack Of
| personal pulchrituae, size is so full Of
magnetism, so skilled an artist SO per-
| feet a reader, SO alive with an init
mate knowledge of the dramatic value
| of little things that her q "a do
| lightful exposition Of what to do on
the stage and how to do it-an artist
to the tips of her facile fingers.
The final curtain did not ring down
until 1890 SO that not only lack OF
space. but OF. time. prevents any at
tempt at telling the story of the
dramatized version Of Vanity Fair"
atslS Of Sn Mrs Fsh afd but r IS d massr
work of the members OF her company.
Every little bit was we'll done--small.
herd was hideously convincing as Lord
Steyne; Robert V. Ferguson showed
real ability in the two character parts
landlord Henry Stephenson gave a
finished polished and powerful per-
Torrance as Rawdon Crawley--one Of
the best performances l have seen for
many day-Reginald Darlington, as
Captain Dobbin, and r. w. Tucker, IL
Harold Russell was beyond criticism
as Joseph Sedley; Roydon Erlynne
simply was the dilapidated Major
Lod ' Helena Van Brugh was sutn-
GENTLY weak and weepy Amelia; Mary
Maddern's performance OF the small
| bit of Briggs was more than good,
| licious as Miss Crawley, There we're
/ some ten on fifteen others who deserve
mention, but. aIsain, there is neither
| space nor time.
| About as nearly perfect IA performs
| ance as we shall see. w. D. G.
| Not One of Its Hest.
Little more than half a house saw
| the production of at. the Old Cross
| Roads" in the Bijou last night, and
only few had anything good to say
about 1t, The play turned out to be
a poor edition of the Sins, of the
! Father good deal more vulgar and
| a little less interesting, 1t was the
kind of play that the gallery calls ''in,,
/ tensely dramatc" but leaves bad
Impression on the rest of the house
Nearly every one sang, and nearly all
/ of them sang poorly, There was soma
acting of the melodramatic variety,
which was as good as Is generally seen
on the Biiou stage but the play as 9
whole is not one that any southern
audience would accept Very kindly
There was one bright spot, the same
| being Tom Smith, who first appears
in the role OF a tramp and later does
/ as we'll as the Count de MonaN, who
/ gets away with the susceptible young
/ heiress, as DOC" Kerr, the Sambler;
would say, as easily as hough he held
/ four kings and the ace of hearts, The
count sang Il song While he was tramp
| that made hit
4 Individually, some OF the actors
! made wood impressions. Doc Kerr
knew all the poker parlanee that ans
need be familiar with: the tramp was
fun of his own kind of dope, AMI Leila
Bennett, Aunt Li2a's Moses OF the
Bullrushes," sang better than the rest,
The show, however, IS not one tnat
will appeal strongly to Richmond