The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-14
MISS ADAMS
 6 R E A I IN
 "CHANTECLER"
ROsta1d's Idea.ist c Poem Pre- sente d to Large Au l.ence
 at Park, Last Night

players, who came to the Park Thea tre in Edmond Rostand's plays Chan tecler. as adapted by Louis N Park CT.
 Rostand. in his lofty effort, appeals to the same element in the human mind that is reached by Hans Ander- son, Grimm, Howard Pyle and An drew Lang.
 Tn childhood it required no stretch of imagination to talk with stones, and trees and animals. The appeal to the adult mind must be more pow erful. and must be powerfully trans mitted.'
 And so it was. last night. by Miss Adams, as Chantecler, Josephine Vic tor as the Hen Pheasant, George Henry Trader as Patou. the dog, Will liam Levers as the BIackbird and A. Lionel Hogarth, as the Peacock, with some 30 other players.
 The motive in the fairy tale of mans childhood is ever simple. One wins the princess and lives happily ever after. One finds cave full of jewels and lives softly forever.
 But the motive of Rostand's poem is an ideal. The princess of his play, the final aim of striving. is not even the wonderful Golden Pheasant, too blue blooded for barnyard, it is the motive of duty to all, of service to the collectivity, which in the noble soul of Chantecler resists the demands of love, is not overthrown by the hat- red and scoffing of the world, and survives the destruction of his own vanity, pride of accomplishment, and belief in his high mission.
 It is new world into which the audience is suddenly thrust. domain to which the best scenic artists of the country have lent their skill.
 The first scene is barnyard in which all things are swelled to the proportions which they bear in rela- tion to the habitants of that realm. The cart, the fork. the cage of the blackbird. the kennel of the dog, the pigeon cot, the geraniums growing in stheir pots, are giant things-are what Chantecler and his hens see. 2.
 Two forest scenes appear. in which the trees are manifest in the same swollen proportions. The first is when Chantecler confesses the great secret to the Golden Pheasant.
 '1t is my song that sets the sun in
 heaven
 Tt is my song that brings you back
 the light.''
 The second, is the closing feature of the barnyard drama. in which the toads invite the cock to a banquet, lifting him to the heights of lofty pride. But when the Nightingale sings he is stripped ot belief in his beauty of voice. Then the Pheasant, jealous of the dawn, lures Chantecler to forget his song, and the sun arises without his help.
 And hot less striking is the setting at the Guinea Hens five o'clock tea, where amid cabbage grown to giant size Chantecler is put to the suprem- est test of physical courage and suf- fers the hard fate of the idealiSt whose truths have not yet been per- ceived by his fellows. Here Chante- cler meets the genuine Champion ciates, except Patou and the Pheasant. look on. hoping for his death, for brute force in the barnyard remains an admirable thing.
 But the shadow of the hawk falls upon the garden, and Chantecler alone. having courage of the soul. is fearless before that foe The hawk passes. Then says Chantecler. as he renews the combat with the genuine champion fighting cock.'
 .'He cannot kill me now. gained
 new strensth
 s"When our great foe was lowering
 And I found courage trembling for the others"
 | There first the Cock dimly perceives that his unusual strength and courage are not for himself and that his. su- preme duty is to the collectivity, and , his supreme purpose thes safeguarding of the future of his species.
 And so the fight ends with the vic, ! tory to the greater moral force. for the champion fighter wounds himself with his own spurs and quits cold" | Then to the forest flees Chantecler, with the Golden Pheasant. There he ! hears the Nightingale and learns that his song is hoarse and unpleasant. a "a ro hat ha S11r " 1 without his song.
 There he learns, too that there j must always be a nightingale in -the forest" and that though one is talk en another will come
 ] And there he learns that keepers of !; ideals must sing what songs they have. and do what duties are theirs ! to do. So back to his barnyard goes l Chantecler to his daily task. He cannot bring the dawn. but he can awake those who sleep when the i dawn comes. He can call those who i know the light only when. they see it. As for the Golden Pheasant she is
 taken in the net. and goes back also i to the barnyard. Whether this is a concession of the poet to the demand 1 happy ending" or whether it be l legitimate part of the allegory every 1 reader must determine for himself, or l herself, as the case may be.
 The feathered heroes of Rostand's l barnyard mimic or symbolize the strivings of the human heart. The i loftiest aspira tions are shown beside the <meanest. The cynic. the affected l fellow the chap who seeks accumu> 1ation of good fat worms all are there. The people who don't know and who don't care are there too. The l toads. are creatures of envy; the owls,
 creatures of slaughter and darkness. The Golden Pheasant, accentuates the demand of her sex to be all in all;
 the Cock. sees that some must be told | off to watch and ward over the whole. | But one of the beauties of Chante- | cler is that the audience doesn't have | to bother with thinking about the
 meaning of the play if it doesn't want to. ''Chantecler' is a picture that | any child can enjoy. or any adult. ! In 'Chantecler." Miss Adams scores | her greatest triumph, those matter of i fact critics notwithstanding who as-
 sert that. the part should be played i by a man. Such yearning for srealism would demand trained bullfinches to | sing Wagner's bird music, as Arthur | Brisbane puts it.
 ! Miss Adams has proved aeain her title to be called the greatest actress on the American stage. There may be | others who can as well portray the elemental qualities of hate and the love that is between sexes but none
 stand near her in capacity to repre- i sent hope, aspira tion. ambition, unal-