Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-16
ADJUSTMENTS
Columbia.

Praise Of the Columbia Players has be-
come 80 perennial throughout the years
Of their existence that repetition simply
makes 1t trite and tiresome. But what IL
one to do when these same players per-
| sist In sprinsing surprises year in and
year out. and when, as has frequently
happened, ono Of them, who has come to
| be accepted as merely good" "satisfac-
tory" or adequate, or any Of those trite
| terms the reviewer loves to employ when
| he can think of nothing else to say, blazes
forth q new trail In the forest of dramatic
endeavor and blossoms out as an actor or
an actress Of superior ability.
When the four-act play, 1.-THE Lily"
adapted from the French Of Pierre Woin
and CASTOR Leronx, was illuminated by
the master touch OF David Belasco and
equipped by him with specially selected
cast 1t did Just what any one familiar
made folks sit up and take notice and
aroused the blase critics from their in
dolent siesta of self-satisfied indifference
and write things. AS q dramatic pro-
duction 1t has been surpassed In strength
and dramatic intensity by but few IL any
or the plays Of its time.
And this is the play that the Columbia
Players. summer stock organization,
with but week or ten days at most
available for preparation. undertook to
present at the Columbia Theater last
evening. 1t was play that added to the
reputation Of those OF the original cast,
who were great before, and made great
fore have been suspected Yet through
out the entire four acts. and especially
the last three, this same stock oEganiza-
ton held 2 capacity audience actually
forms of appreciation and approval bet
ter than applause-wrapt attention, the
nervous clasping Of the arms Of the
chairs. signs and illuminated faces, and,
as was plainly visible last evening, an
eagerness and impotence to have the
play go on without the necessary inter-
duptions between the acts. These, all OF
them, were embodied in the tribute paid
by q splendid audience to the splendid
presentation Of THE Lily last evening.
1t was tribute richly deserved by the
company as q whole, in which those who
mounted and staged 1t had their share of
the triumph. But even this seemingly
extravagant laudation does not say all.
In THE Lily" as in all plays, there are
great opportunities for individual players,
and those opportunities were developed
10 excellent purpose last evening. AS
splendidly as Frances Nelson. the ac-
cation. acquitted herself in role intense
and exacting, which furnished q stepping
stone to fame for her noted predecessor,
Julia Dean; as magnifcently as George
w. Barber rose to the heights of require
ment in the role Of Comte De Maigny, the
self-absorbed and self-absorbing father,
who was willing to immediate his two
daughters on the altar Of his own COM
fort, yet to Carrie Thatcher. the self
sacrificing sister. seemed to go the real
triumph OF the evening, as Odette
Perhaps 1t was because her work came
as such a brilliant surprise after months
Of good" "satisfactory'' and adequate"
notices in roles Of less Importance that
the audience at first. even in the midst
OF its applause. did not realize what had
happened. But when 1t did 1t made its
verdict known Enthusiastically.
There were, Of course. many others in
the cast who raised their standard of ex-
cellence. spnred on by the great work of
the three principalsIEdward Haas Rob-
ms. as Georges Armand, the lover; John
NJ. Kline. as Flock, the cotton merchant;
Aline McDermott. as his simpering, silly
daughter; J. Hammond DALEY. in q very
forceful Characterization of her fiance,
the Viscount De Maigny: Godfrey Mat
thews, as Huzar, the family solicitor, and
others in minor roles. But the history of
thte evening will always record the tri-
umph Of the three principals, and Car
RE Thatcher's name will shine with the
brightest of them.