The Washington herald., 1911-01-17
THE NEW NATIONAL.
Otis skinner in "Sire."


1t seems only a yesterday or two ago
that Mr.. Otis Skinner played at the New
National Theater and gave us such de-
light in the part of strolling player OF
the oIden time in Your Humble Serv-
ant" Here he is back again. once more
play actor of a yet elder day. in new
play by Henri Lavedan, called Sire,
adapted from the French by Louis N.
Parker. In many ways the character
that Mr.. Skinner is playing now is as
delightful as any that he has essayed.
1t fits him-it has been made to fit him
like glove, and as an entertainment 1t
is a sheer delight. The great burden Of
the play, both in its comedy and its
pathetic features, falls upon Mr.. Skin
ner's shoulders; but this is only to say
that it is admirably taken care of. and
the admirers of this player. who are
legion in Washington. will only need to
be told this to know that Sire is a
play they want to see
The character essayed by Mr.. Skinner
is that of Denis Roulette. vagabond, ad-
venturer, nomad, jack at all trades,
actor. buffoon. soldier of fortune-what
YOU will. How do you think of him
when you have seen him from beginning
to end? Why. as = queer sort of COM
bination of Francois Villon and of Dau-
diets .'Tartarin, with touch OF Dick
Swiveller here and there, and perhaps a
. suspicion of Alfred Jingle. 1t is a queer
admxture- We meet him first when he
comes to repair the clock of Mile. de
Saint-SaIbi one of the ladies of the old
regime The time of the play is the
revolution of 1s4S, and Louis Philippe is
c,;p Coll ic
white-haired and she has been very i'll:
but she clings to the belief that the old
regime will return: that the dauphin
did not die during the revolution, but
was spirited out of France to sur
vive the fate that befell Louis XIV and
Marie Antoinette
Once. when a little girl, she had seen
the dauphin in the Garden of the Tuiler-
les and had given him some rare tropi-
cal seeds. and she knows that if he,
whom she considers the rightful king.
comes back she will recognize him. and
that the name of those seeds she gave
him will be a taliSman of proof. About
her household she keeps able and a
private physician like the grandes danes
Of old, and these, fearing for her reason.
hit upon the itinerant clockmender. Denis
Roulette, to impersonate the long-lost
king and they arm him with the secret
of the seed. Thus prepared. the rogue
of an actor invades mademoiselie'S house
hold and coZenS her to his hearts con-
tent. and with such success that she
hands over a fortune to him for the
cause" But in the meantime Denis
trust such a rogue to have an eye for
beauty-has fallen in love with Leonie
Bouquet. companion to mademoselle,
and it is she who brings him to his sense
of duty and honor and causes him to re-
nounce the pretensions, which he is al
ready beginning to believe in himself. and
while the revolution storms outside, the
man, stirred by love and by some strong
sense of decency within his SOUL goes out
to help fight the revolutionists for the
tottering throne of the last king that was
to reign in France
1t is. Of course, a fairy tale, pure and
simple. It Is rodomontade; there Is more
than a touch Of satire in it, thinly dis
EuiSed: It tries an experiment or two in
the ironic vein: it never impresseS you
with its sincerity. But with it all, it is
as entertaining as a page from Dumas.
and that far, also. from anything ap-
preaching realism One gets the impress
sion that a much better play could have
been made out OF this material; there
seems to be a lack of direction, and il
jumps with too little reason. with no we'll
denned line of demarcation, from grave
to gay. from lively to severe" 1t is a
trife difficult to know when Denis Rou-
lette believes in himself or wants his
audience to believe in him There are
times when you are quite sure that he
thinks he is the very devil of a fellow:
but the next moment, in some homhastic
speech with exravagant gesticuiation. he
seems to throw ridicule on his worser
nature. and to show you. even through
the sham a glimpse of a real man.
And you cannot help thinking, too that
in its earlier passages the play halts. 1t
is. Of course, quite necessary to lay the
foundation, to explain Mademoiselle, on
whom so much depends; but it Is hard
to see the need of that extra nurse and
all the chatter that follows the rising OF
the first curtain. 1t seems plain, too,
that somewhere the playwright must
have had an idea that the episode of the
Red Hand brethren meant something
more than a mere comedy episode-as it
is played it is hardly worth dignifying
by calling X a situation In its main
thread the play moves easily and logically
enough-that is, within the limits of a
romance-but there is, somehow, a need
Of concentration; too many things are
done without reason and, being done,
reach nowhere.
But the part, That just fits the genius
Of Mr.. Skinner, who seems to love the
sudden transitions from clustering hrag-