Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-01-23
Columbia.

While the stage is frankly confessing
to a doleful lack of literary materiai
Mrs Fiske calmly proceeds to discover
one new author after another. Ana very
good authors nearly all of them seem
to beat least, so long as their work en-
joys the advantage OF 1nterpretatlo"
under Mrs. Fiske's auspices. For MIS-.
Fiske's art is not confined to pollsneo
individual Interpretation. 1t is compre-
hensive and supervisory. She is not con-
tent with the superficial expression
which wins applause for the single part
with which she is identified. She scat
tiers genial rays of Illuminating 1nteili-
gence throughout every production with
which she is associated, much as tue
spotlight man in productions OF less re-
ultimate quality bestows prominence as
exigencies suggest While other pro-
ducers are bewailing a scarcity OF du
thors Mrs. Fiske finds them as abundant
as advance agents, and invariably taxes
the best possible care of their creatlons'
Her latest find is Mr.. Smith-not John'
nor Harry B., but Harry James smith,
who takes compensation for his own con.
ventionality of name by giving the cme1
character of his play the impressively pc.
culiar title, Mrs. Bumpstead-Leish.
With all her breadth of intellectual grasp,
Mrs. Ffske has a subtle individuality
tain line of parts. She is The adventur-
ess of the current stage-not the ordinary
Understanding adventures who is con-
tent to entangle mental weaknng 1or
the sake of squeezing few bundles Oh
bank notes out of his family. Neither IS
she the serpentine creature who lures
men from home merely because she en-
joys seeing them suffer. She is an ad-
ventures who plays fair game OF WITS
against social articles and who, whether
she wins or loses, claims a certain admir-
alton for the splendid nerve and skill with
which she plays whatever cards fate may
throw into her hands. Mrs. Fiske, at her
best, is always reincarnation OF BECKY
Sharp.
Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh is not after any
thing so vulgar as money-she has plenty
of that; nor anything so commonplace as
love. Social ambition, the desire to link
her family with aristocratic traditions
which will effectually bury the fact that
her father got rich by selling medicine
which would not have been permitted to
bear a pure-food label is her single pur-
pose in life. 1t is a most amusing char
acter study, giving Mrs. Fiske an OPP
portunity to display her Abilities In 10"
comedy as well as in more delicate lines.
Her transition from highly polished and
really convincing assumptions of elegance
to the fireside dialects of her home IN
"Indianner" constitutes strikingly ar
tistic and thoroughly humorous contrast.
Fiske's Evolutionary methods, there can
be no doubling that she thoroughly vital
ICES a part with the keen analysis or
clever woman.
The vigorous and snappy clearness with
which she swung into the enumeration
of dialect must be taken as proof that
her usual observation of syllables IS
method and not essentially and hopeless
ly a personal characteristic.
most entertaining character creation,
WI irh danQQrnllSlV
tesque, but always stops on the safe
side, was that of the mother who cium-
silly but sincerely tried to assist her
daughters schemes to their ultimate
triumph Joseph Kilgour played the role
of a crude but eloquent tombstone sales
man In a manner which rendered 1t an
important feature of the comedy. Other
members of the cast came into conSplcu-
Gus attention naturally and asreeably,
and the manner of it's performance made
the play, though it was but two hours
from curtain to curtain, satisfying and
care-dispelling evenings entertainment.