The daily sentinel., 1910-01-29

lTulF great actor trOd the boards
at the Park opera house last night
Truly one of the most magnificent.
perfect and memorable performances
in the history of Grand functions
historic old play house. which has
provided a stage for many a distiug-
uished actor and actress in the nearly
two decades of its history. was Of
fered last night
And The Sentinel is delighted to
say that the audience which gather
ed to see the great actor and TO en-
| Joy his superb production, was a
| brilliant one. thoroughly representa-
| tive of western Colorado citizenship.
| Not vacant seat was to be found in
the building and many who sought
| downstairs or balcony seats were
disappointed. Numerous extra seats
added to the capacity of the theatre.
| In the splendid audience there were
some forty prominent Montrose peo-
| pie who came down in a special car
to witness the performance. There
were also numerous people from
points in this valley outside of Grand
Junction. 1t is needless to say that
Grand Junction people were there by
the hundreds.
The actor was Robert Bruce Man
| tell, of whom William Winter, con-
sldered the greatest dramatic critic
in New York. said in the New York
| Tribune: He is a great actor He
| is now the leader of our stage, 1t
| was Robert Bruce Mantell who for
| more than quarter of century has
ranked among the brilliant men of
| the stage who is today beyond a
doubt the most popular and the most
successful living Shakespearean ac-
| tor. Mantell visited Grand Junction
| many years ago but few who saw him
| then were able to be present last
| night. He is well along in years
| now, past the three score mark, yet
| he is wonderfully preserved in every
| way and his marvellous dramatic pow
| ers have increased and strengthened
as the years have moved along.
The play was Hamlet" that mix
ture of the real and unreal, that
| mighty. that strange, that wonderful
tragedy of Shakespeare's. perhaps the
| best known, the most frequently
quoted. and easily one of the most
| powerful of all of those never dying
plays of the Bard of Avon.
There isn't any need for us to say
| that II was magnificent presenta-
| tion that Mantell and his company
gave for any one who knows of
| things theatrical to any extent what
| ever knows that Mantells Hamlet"
| is magnificent.
His Interpretation of the charac-
| ter, a character unlike any other
| character in all that vast army of
| men and women portrayed and ere
ated by Shakespeare, the character of
the melancholy, brilliant, pathetic.
| revenge-seeking prince of Denmark
has had much to do with placing
| Mantell among the great actors of
the times. It's wonderful delinea-
! ton. In his hands Hamlet" lives
| and breathes, and he who watches
and listens from the audience soon
| forgets Mantell as a man and Inn
agines that on the stage is walking
| and talking Hamlet, prince of Dem
| mark, real and true. Any one scene,
any one speech, whether that be the
famous soliquy or the shortest sem
tences, throughout the length of the
six acts of this tragedy of tragedies
and its ten or more scenes, is suf-
ficient to prove that Mantell is really
great.
Mantell's portrayal of Hamlet is
all his own. He apes no one and
those who receive his conception of
the prince of Denmark easily accept
1t as the ideal. Manteil's work last
night fascinated the great audience.
In every scene he was splendid. 1t
would be hard to tell in which por-
tion of the play he attains his great
est dramatic heighth. Opionions
would differ here most earnestly and
generally.
The big audience was certainly ap-
preciative. Time and again the ap-
plause was spontaneous and deafen-
ing And the distinguished actor
| was gracious and time and again he
| bowed his thanks before the curtain.
| No actor ever received more applause