The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-04-14

n
central idea from responsibility for
the success or failure of the drama.
Though little of his work has
reached the footlights 60 far, Mr..
Booth has at least impressed the
critical with the fact that he plans
and executes his plays with extra
ward Sheldon, he is alive enough 70
the ordinary life about him TO dis
cover his theme and fashion his il.
lustrations from the simplest, yet
vital, instances; and that, if TOO
unrelievedly serious, the majority
Of his utterances throh with hu-
manity and strength.
MYTH the first lifting of the
w curtain "Tbe Bargain
strikes out almost comically into
tragedy. A widow. Mrs. Arnold,
is distracted through the realiza
tion that her son, on trial for his
life, cannot prove the truth Of his
denial of murder charged. Only
one man in the world could do
that; and this eyewitness, the
prisoner 3 stepbrother, is known
to Mrs. Arnold and her son as a
waster and a fraud. This man and
his stepmother are the chief char
scters of the play; their types may
be most vividly and directly
indicated as similar to the Tully
Marshall character in "The City,
and 10 Mary Shaw Is own Mrs.
Alving in "Ghosts and they
are, in spite of these implied com
PARSONS, admirably played by
John Emerson and Amelia Gard
ner,
The man, Eliot Arnold. is
charged with having embezzled
that part Of his fathers estate
which should have gone to his sis
ter and his stepmother; and,
though he succeeds in convincing
them of his innocence, he presently
confesses to their lawyer that he
did speculate and lose the money.
The attorney allows him n week in
which to make last endeavor to
straighten out mis- affairs. There
the first act ends. The second
brings the striking novelty Of the
drama. Fatal sentence on the uD-
soon boy seems imminent; Eliot
appears. He makes an astounding
offer to his stepmother. In eX-
change for immunity and for a
considerable sum of money, he
will save his stepbrother. He will
not merely deny the others guilt;
he will become confused and ulti-
mately break down; and, finally.
he himself will receive his stop
brothers. sentence. Mrs. Arnold
is Mortified; even a mother can
not countenance such a sacrifice
But presently we unearth the rea-
son: Eliot has been told by his
physician that disease from
which he suffers must inevita bly,
prove fatal within month. Why
not sell his life-a poor thing
that can buy so much? The bar
gain is agreed upon; the astound-
ing news spreads; and the act
ends with Eliot g arrest and CON
fession,
The next act brings the bewild-
ering information that the dag
nosis was wholly incorrect-that
Eliot Arnold may look forward to
quite as long life as any of us!
But the ingenious author has still
another twist for his last act
Eliot, now fighting for his life,
becomes pauic.stricken, loses self
possession and discretion; ard we
learn that he himself was the
murderer,
TT ONE wants Shakespeare now
IL adays it appears one must be
watchfully alert for brief and
fleeting glimpses. Indeed, since
the season of 1e11-1912 got really
under way, the only opportunities
New York has had to see the
greatest of all dramatic poets
acted were those offered by sew
eral.weeks' and very interesting
engagement filled by E. n. Sotb,
ern and Julia Marlowe, at a the
ater far from Broadway. For the
rest, we have had to do with mo.
tion.picture substitutes and the
even less substantial promises of
Grace George, to play Beatrice of
"Much Ado. In the meantime,
we have had two agreeable
snatches. brought about through
offers from ambitious actors to
help the actors fund by appear
ing at O. benefit in famous roles.
Lewis Waller, now enjoying n gen
orally unexpected success in
Beaucaire,' established his Lon,
don fame and popularity by fol
lowing Richard Manefield's lead
in more cases than In this. A not
able instance was "King Henry
W Inasmuch as Madge Tither-
adge. who played the French
princess in that history with him,
is in this country, it was simple
for them to let us see the wooing
scene. 1t is, perhaps, the most
agreeable incident in the play;
and its humorous and sentimental
charms are so well within the abil.
tiles of these two pleasant visitors
as to have entertained us thor
oughly,
THE trial scene from ''The
Il Merchant of Venice was
more of an undertaking and could
not be said to have come of quite
SO happily 1t appeared to have
been entered into without rehear-
sal-that is, without ''full" re-
hearsal, for every important role
WAS Entrusted to some one who had
enacted it before, That Of Ne
rissa, assigned to Olive Wyndbam,
was the sole exception; but if Ne
rissa figured only in the trial scene
it would be walking lady'sD
part indeed. AS Sbylock, n. c.
Goodwin did nothing to disturb the
established verdict that he is, at
best, respectable in the char
acter; his reading is indefinite and
his embodiment lacks force and