The Washington times., 1911-02-09
BERNHARDT WINS
DOUBLE LAURELS
MADAME x" and Jeanne
dare" Given At the
+. National.

The novelty of the Bernhard engage
ment at the National was Madame X"
This presentation yesterday afternoon
afforded an unrivaled opportunity for
comparison between the methods of
that new apostle of American realism,
Miss Dorothy Donnelly, and the world S
greatest romantic player, Nine. Bern
hardt.
4 striking contrast was afforded In
the first instance by the varying con-
ceptions of the roles. Mime. Bernhardt
took the premise that a woman of the
original refinement of Jacqueline would
not have fallen so low as the creature
portrayed by Miss Donnelly in the hotel
room and court room scenes.
The verdict, therefore, must rest
largely upon personal taste. The i'm
personation of Miss Donnelly certainly
trayal of Nine. Bernhardt may be more
poetic to the highly imaginative au-
ditor.
Defes Realism.
The French actress makes few con-
cessions to realism, either in makeup
or in dress. She entered the squalid
hotel in a rich gown, trimmed in silk
and satin, with all the evidences of gen.
tility in every detail of her costume.
play occurred in the courtroom scene,
and 1t was in these that the French ac-
tress demonstrated most clearly the
point of departure between the repres-
sion of the younger American players
and the robust effects of the heroic
school
In the other leading roles the Ameri-
can company almost uniformly was su-
perior to the foreign visitors.
A Play of Words.
The heartrending yet musical
death wall of the burning Maid OF
Orleans" re-echoed today in the cars
of those who saw the Divine Sarah"
impersonate Joan of Arc and went
home with conflicting emotions result
ing from the intensely human pity
and the spiritual supremacy of Bern
hardt's creation.
In none of her plays is Bernhard
given a better opportunity to display
the genius which has lifted her to
the pinaCle of fame. There is prac-
tically no action in the play; it is a
play of words.
1t could be made the dreariest and
deadliest of dramatic presentation
buTdened as it is with long speeches
and extended dialogues, used to de-
velop the story which cannot be
brought into the action on the stage.
The first act in which Joan does not
Lppear. gave the audience rather a
depressing idea of what was to come.
A Personal Triumph.
But the miracle came at the opening
OF the second when, clad in her doub-
let suggesting armor and the tights
of a man, Joan of Arc walked half
way cross the stage with bowed head
and spoke. Instantly the illusion was
created; the play became real and the
intensity OF the situation, when Joan
faced her accusers, was radiated from
the small figure in electric currents
of tensity. The magnetism, the per-
SonaliIy, the finished art OF the great
French woman pervaded the theater
Her voice rose and fell; hardened
with anger; softened with sorrow;
was modulated with the divine in
spiration that sustained her. and with
lts range and sweep carried the great
audience with 1t, through all the
asonies of the prisoner, as If hypno-
tized.
Her Supreme Moment.
The third act, where Joan in prison is
tormented and under threat of duress
is induced to sign the dictum of the
church, she rose 10 the highest dramatic
tensity. With the sound of the Angelus,
the realization of what she has done
comes over her; the voices that guided
her throughout her campaigns for the
freedom of Orleans spoke to her: she
became the sublime, divine Joan and
under the inspiration destroys the paper
she has signed; defies her judges; re-
fuses compromise, and accepts the death
at the stake.
In the last act, with her executioners
on the stage, and the stake in a court
yard, the burning of Joan is depicted in
the conversation and description of
those who witness it. Her wall, the
most wonderful of all her vocal per-
foTmanCes, told more vividly than acting
and yet the divine sublimity with which
she accepted her fate. 1t was a cry of
mingled horror and hCroism that fingers
long in the mind: a note of human
tragedy and spiritual triumph that will
reverberate in the memory of thousands
long after the Divine Sarah shall at |
length have passed beyond.