The Ocala evening star., 1911-03-29
a DOLLS HOUSE,


facial expression, Nine. Labadie had |
everything in her favor. That she is a |
fine actress and good impersonator,
those who heard her admit, but then /
in a two hours monologue. however |
great the impersonator, il is very diff |
fcult to keep the attention OF the au- |
dience up to fever heat and with a less
dramatic story this would have been |
impossible
Madame Labadie opened her reading |
by saying word about the author of
"A Dolls House that many deemed /
his works immoral, etc.
Her task was a difficult one. for in /
Ii she had TO impersonate her father /
and her own joyous and light-hearted |
girIhood. Nora, her maturer years, her
husband, Christiana. Old-time girl
hood friend, who after intervening
years came to see her and take a po-
sition in the bank of which her hus-
band was president and a Gotchalk,
who had a position in the bank. which
Christiana to assume and a DR..
Merk, one Of the family in social life.
Nora was her fathers pet She was
full of pleasure loving Instincts; she
loved to make others happy OF her
years and was constantly giving little
surprise parties to them and her be
loved father and with it all a little
spendthrift. whose love for money was
only inordInate, because of the dear
precious things she could procure with
it for the delectation of her cOmpan-
ions and her love of maccaroons, for
she had a sweet tooth as well as kind
and loving disposition. She was her
fathers idol and though he chided her.
he ever gave her what she desired. The
father died. Her husband grew des-
perately sick. The only thing to save
his life was to take him to sunny Italy.
But how? They were poor, they had no
money and in her all abundant love for
her husband she conceived a plan to
| secure that money and that was thru
Gotchalk and in the note she gave for
| the $1,000 to make the journey she
forged her fathers name. and this too
four days after his death. Tis act, in
her innocent mind and heart, where
love atoned for all wrong was suf-
| ficient-in fact the thought that she
| had done wrong, had become a forger,
never entered her mind until Gotchalk
was about to lose his position in the
bank and called on her to use her in
fuence with her husband to keep him
| in it, that he used this startling and
| fearful fact to make her promise to do
so. But when she appealed to her hus-
band, he fatty refused, because he said
if he did this Gotchalk would domineer
over him and soon be the bank itself
She then began to see and feel the
enormity of her act and her every in
geenuity of mind was to keep the fact
from her husband, knowing the dis
grace it would bring on him, her and
her children. Her friend, Christiana
Iinstinctively conjectured the trouble
that was writhing her soul and told
her to tell her husband all, but she re-
fused, as she thought it's concealment
could yet be accomplished, but the
lines grew closer and the inevita BILE
was to happen, she thought she would
iappea1 to DR.. Merk, whom she knew
had money, to assist her but when she
half told her secret her nature revolt
ed and she declined to go farther, when
the doctor. who was a confirmed con-
sumptive and who knew his days to be
numbered, told her of the canker that
was eating out his heart his love for
her-this was another startling and
thrilling episode in the story of a
} Dolls House." in which the wife had
lived all her life.
The night of the New Years ball was
approaching in which Nora was to APP
pear in character costume, in creating
this she interviewed her husband and
Christiana and on the eve of it, Got
chalk appeared, handed her a letter
, from Noras husband. which told the
enormity of Nora's offense. She placed
the letter in her husbands box. but
appealed to him so irresistibly not to
get it or read it until after the ball she
prevailed. At the ball Nora was the ad-
mired of all, outshone every one as she
had ever done on similar occasions and
the admiration of her husband knew nc
: bounds at the homage paid his wife
and seemed to inspire him with a re-
: newed love for his beautiful and cap
| tivating wife. The ball over and their
t return home, was the moment of in
tensest anxiety of the wife, for she
: knew her husband will soon know al
r and it proved, for no sooner die
he read the 'story of her forgery, thar
he turned on his wife upbraided her
said she was no fit woman to rear hel
2 children she would only implant il
S them the same irresponsible atmos.
/ phere she possessed. She pied in ex.
tenuatiOn of her act her deep love fol
her husband. That what she had done
: she would assume all the odum of the
0 act, that not a touch of taint shoulC
He cared more of what the world SaiC
of him in this humiliation than wha
: his wife's love was for him and tn,
: children. He spurned her and this ac
a icusation almost crushed the lovin.
K heart of the devoted wife. At thi
r juncture some good friend intervened
: | whether it was DR.. NIerk or that Got
O chalk relented and would not expos
r. her was not made plain. but then i
q was she told her husband she no long
Il er could live with him as he had toll
q her she was no fit wife for him no
:. mother for her children. This thrill
J., ing and heart reending episode was tn
= climax of the story and told with sue
>, intensity of feeling. facial eXpressio 10
and dramatic power that she rivete
. her audience to their seats for
moment.
The above in substance is the Stor
of Ibsen's A Doll House as presente
last night by Madame Labadie an
from it in a measure can be judged tn
deep dramatic lines it suggested an
SIS the power Of human acting to inten
sify it to her hearers
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- costs but a quarter. Why suffer
Z l.