New-York tribune., 1912-01-21
THE PLAYGOE:R
Elsie Ferguson-And About Other
Players and Plays HereabOut.

Players and Plays HereabOut.
The coming week will be the last of
Elsie Ferguson's season in New York,
fact which, for the next eight perform
ances should fill the Gaiety Theatre with
admirers of the art Of high comedy. Two
months is a large slice Of time to win
from the attention Of New York in these
days of superfluity of theatres, storms of
plays and clouds of stars" But Miss
Ferguson, who arrived practically unher-
aided, has drawn popular and discrim-
mating appreciation for two months,
winning, what is more, wide recognition
as a high comedy actress Of the first
rank.
Her buoyancy and the pure joyousness
of her are a blessed gift to our stage,
where these qualities are often merely
initiated. or asserted in quite inferior
FORM There is depth, too, and there is
subtlety in her work; strength as well
as tenderness; there are force and grace,
tears as we'll as laughter; her voice has
magic il it, and her beauty might in
spire poets. She is a poem Of woman,
and as an artist a genius. The gods
have showered all their gifts upon her.
And she has worked with diligence, pa
tience and good sense to make her work
worthy of the most competent praise.
Destiny has marked her for a distin-
guished career. If her management is
modestly unaware of the quality of the
prize in its hands it cannot indefinitely
remain so.
"Sumurun' is not the most wonderful
thing in the world, but it is the most
striking entertainment in New York at
the present time. 1t is novel enough to
attract and strong enough to hold. The
acting throughout is unusually good, in
one case that Of Leopoldine Konstantln,
as the Hunchback's Dancing Slave, it is
intense, powerful. Fraulein Konstantin
flashes from mood to mood, from alluring
coquetry to unrestrained malignity from
defiance to terror, from mischief to ten
derness and. aversion. Her Dancing Slave
is at all moments a constituencies Great
urc, and at some moments the most ter
rible woman exhibited in the modern
theatre What this actress would be like
were she playing the same part with
words is a matter for some speculation.
How voice and language would match
the cyclonic changes cannot even be
guessed. But in the vigor, and even the
extravagances of pantomimic art, she
undoubtedly finds peculiar aid.
Fraulein Konstantin's part is called !
"The Beautiful Slave of Fatal Enchant- |
ment." But to the Western, not Ara |
bian, vision Sumurun's maid, Fraulein
Susanne Herzog, is the fascinating per-
son OF this play, and the wonder is that
the constructor Of the plot did not give
her lover to add to the joys and trag
edies Of this alternately joyous and
tragic drama without words. The at
tractivenes; Of this most pleasing young
person in yellow is not the only reason
she has for catching the eager eyes of
the audience, but the airiness with which
she fits from place to place and the at
tentiveness Of her expression and the
grace Of her dancing make her worthy
of special note. Her attentiveness as
she listens and watches really makes
SOME OIL the uOSJ pleasing passages OF |
tho play.
Paul Conrad is just the man to con-
vey the brutal majesty Of the Sheik
But Emil Lind, as the Hunchback, is the
most interesting Of the men in "Sumu-
run" Max Reinhardt has not wholly
escaped the traditions Of pantomime
He retains the man with the whitened
Ill
our old friend Pierrot, only this time
Pierrot in an Arabian Nights Dream.
Only little while ago this column
was expressing its admiration for Mar
garet Anglin and II. Reeves-Smith in
that amusing play Green Stockings"
And the hope was put forth that these
two players, so exquisitely suited to the
work they were doing, and TO SO much
other work that they might do, could
long remain in stage association. But
the hope is defeated. Miss Anglin is this
week TO put on a new comedy by Henry
Arthur Jones, and Reeves-Smith has no
part in it. He is where no actor of his
ability and experience should be at this
time OF year-at liberty. But consider
ing all the new plays that are talked of,
and the lamentations Of certain man
ayers that they cannot find competent
actors his leisure should be brief.
A. W.
-o-