Los Angeles herald., 1910-11-22
NAZIMOVA OPENS WEEK
WITH AN IBSEN DRAMA
Great Russian Actress SWayS
Audience in Play of De-
pressing Character

| Before a large and brilliant audience
at the Majestic theater last evening
! Nine Nazimova, the Russian actress
and her company played the nrst OF
series of nine performances In the cur
/ rent week. opening with Henrik lbseh
Little Eyolf," a drama of passion IN
/ three acts, unfolding a succession OF
! depressing incidents. Ibsenian NOR
/ bidity takes full play in what Is more
! a series of dialogue before elaborate
| settings than a dramatic performance
It is all the more to the credit of the
great NaZimova that without the usual
theatrical agencies Of expression ana
solely by force of her intensity OF per-
sonality and subtle practiced art she
] impresses herself wonderfully upon her
beholders; that she holds fast under
her spell an audience that would flee
/ from such scenes in real life or turn
/ in digust from printed pages that de-
picted them. Curtain calls were nu-
merous.
Little Eyolf is the child OF Alfred
and Rita Allmers, crippled by fall
and incurably doomed to hip disease
/ Mrs. Allmers (Mme. NazimoVa) Is sell
fishly so enamored of her husband that
his attentions to the afflicted child
lead to an intense jealousy of the boy.
In her bitterness she reveals her pas
sion to the husband. Soon after, while
bathing in the surf the child is drowned
and only his crutch Is found. Then
follow through two acts to the close
the struggle Of the bereaved parents
with their grief and with each other,
bitter words widening the gap and
causing the resolve of Allmers to leave
his wife and join the boy in death.
At last, purged in the crucible OF
despair Rita resolves If left alone to
devote her life to the poor children OF
the village and convincing her husband
of her regeneration of spirit wins back
his confidence and saves him from pur-
posed suicide and to herself, content
to share his love unselfshly with 9TH
ers. In this veritable puddle of gloom
four characters founder through the
play; out of such morbid incidents is
woven a fabric black and sinister and
gloomy to the last degree.
AS usual with the Norwegian writer
he has drawn his characters more from
those who people his weird ina gina
ton than the actual world. They are
j exceptional and exaggerated and will
not bear the analysis Of logic or ex-
perience. Two persons who could
grieve so keenly as to be cast in the
very depths of despair, who have the
character to be thus affected could not
be so lacking in character as to lose
all reasonable charity and sympathy
toward each other as to utter recrim-
nations, forget their common duty
think mostly of self and come to the
brink Of separation and suicide.
In the first place the possession Of a
dependent, crippled child could not
make a normal mother jealous Of the
father for making its happiness the
great object of his life. Such a joint
stewardship draws parents closer to-
gether, unless one or both are insane.
and Ibsen does not intimate that he is
drawing such a picture, which would
rob the play OF all moral, Of all rational
motif. But conceding the probability
of such a situation between normal
parents, such a love as Rita's, jealous
of everything and everybody, would
burn itself out in short order-that is
In real life.
The art of Nazimova is a fascinat-
ing thing There is expression in ev-
/ cry movement of her sinuous body ia
the curve of her finger tips. No Sc
verer test could be put upon an actor
than the sustained grief without di-
Verting action or business which H.
sen heaps on without cessation for two
hours In the smallest word, the lit
tlest play of face or gesture Nazimova,
with a personality and method all her
| own, fascinates and holds her audience
despite the repellant character she as
sumes and the gloom it scatters.
/ Brandon lyman as Allmers, admira-
bly, sustained difficult part, express
Ing deep emotion with convincing sim
/ pHcity and without an appearance of
! spasms-a most difficult thing to do
As an intellectual diversion Ibsens
1 play is noteworthy. AS as example of
| consummate art NazimoVa's' acting is
we'll worth seeing,