New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-12-02

Cassagnac. Edward Fosherg
Walter Armin
Bennett Southard
Alfred De Musset. ................ George Graham
Frederic Chopin Albert I.atscha
Marquis De la Sommoniere. George Graham
3Oiloau. Rem s Mears
Sergeant Stanley Rignold
footHlAn ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. ..huRh STANCE
Doorkeeper. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS" H. Iowman
Call BOY. Frank Gerbrach
a student. T. Thomas
A coincidence OF rare and charming art
and the most interesting possibilities
sprang. as II were, full-grown and fin
ished on the stage OF the Knickerbocker
Theatre last evening.
1t was Nine Bertha Kalich hitherto
known to her English speaking audiences
as an actress OF rather sombre emotional
roles. who vouchsafed this boon by APP
comedy.
The play was Rachel" a costume"
piece by Mrs. Carlna Jordan. laid I'm the
interesting days OF the French revolution
of As. and Mime. Kalch took the part of
the great French tragedienne who began
her career as wandering street singer
and ended as the greatest actress OF her
time.
Nine. Kalich has before this shown her
power. the gripping force Of her voice
when she sends IL down 10 its deeper.
tragic note. Last night she revealed her
charm. The quick and facilc gestures
OF slender hands. the upsanting, slightly
quizzical eyebrows. all the light vividness
OF the finished comedienne were there.
The mere visual beauty Of her imper-
sonation in itself came as n surprise. AL
ways she was graceful and finished-if
one may except a brief instant or two
when the sharp break from light treble
talk TO a tragic barytone seemed rather
more than the rhythm Of the scene re-
quired And a more exquisite picture
than she made as she came before the
curtain after the second act, i'm a hoop
skirted gray silk. with a single rose at
her waist. her jet black hair drawn tight
~ over her brow and the footlishts shin
ing up on her radiant white slenderness.
has not been seen I'm many a day.
The only pity was that such graces and
acting gifts could not have had the
chance OF a better play-somethng more
real to work with than this patchwork OF
rickety claptrap OF the biographical COS
tune" play. The appeal which Rachel's
personality and career would make 10
the playwriter or an actress Of Miss
Kalichs temperament is easy TO under
stand.
Rachel's splendid leap from squalor to
success is the very apotheosis of the
players traditional dream, her manner
and method one that would strike ire
sistbly the Imagination and sympathy Of
m actress OF emotional roles. "Adrienne
Lecouvreur" was written for her. and
was her best part; I'm 'Phadre" she
achieved her first great success She
narrowed her audience even as she de-
lighted them. struck 40 deep and poignant
a note that she seemed living her parts
rather than acting them.
Moreover. the Paris Of 1S4S, with
Lamartine Hugo and De Musset, George
Sand and Chopin all on the scene; with
Napoleonic tradition. the new socialism.
the dying Bourbon regime. all boiling
away in the political melting pot, offers
background whose easy picturesque
ness none can escape.
Mrs. Jordan has done fairly good job
Of play carpentry as such jobs go We
see Rachel as a half-starved street singer
In Lyons. dreaming of buying Il copy of
Racine and some day acting in his plays.
We see her four years later. a success
i'm Paris. and torn, as actresses In plays
written about the stage almost invariably
are. between her fierce impersonal en-
thusiasm for her art and her woman's
tenderness for her lover and her grief at
the course OF a love that will not run
smooth. And very touching Nine. Kalich
made the scene. as she sat alone i'm the
frelight. one moment declaiming the lines
OF Phedre, which she had just been al
lowed to play, the next forgetting them
I'm her tears
We see her again few years later In
the thick Of the revolution of rs, with
mobs roaring about her house. the villain
coming i'm with his soldiers to search for
her hidden lover and the curtain going
down on waving tricolors and Rachel
holding the mob by singing the Mar
seiIlaise" from her balcony. And we see
her finally in the greenroom Of the
Coincide Franchise when her unhappy
and much tried adorer clears up the mys-
terry OF his parentage at last and all ends
in happy tears.
There are the usual III Joined frag-
ments common TO such plays, misunder-
standings that none but those on the
stage could by any conceivable stretch OF
fancy fail to see through at once. the
more or less inevitable patchwork and
rich and warm and full OF well-thought-
out atmosphere; we see figures labelled at
least George Sand. De Musset and Chopin
and hear the last named play some of
his own music. 1t was an effective con-
ceit in the second act to hear a discus
sion between De Musset and Chopin as
TO the relative charming power of their
different arts, and to have Chopin play
ALL the women gradually over to his side
of the room with one of his waltzes.
Mr.. Albert Latscha played Chopin, and
II he also played the piano, as he APP
peared TO do. he did II very prettly. Mr..
George Hassell had the role OF the tradi-
tIonal heavy tragedian-the friend and
teacher of Rachel and by her side
throughout the story-and acted II In so
unhackneyed and sincere a fashion as to
make IL rather different thing than such
psrts usually are, and useful back
ground to the playing OF the principal
herself.
Taken as a whole, the performance was
entertaining, but Nine.
Kalichs contribution was something more
than that Her performance was interest