The Washington herald., 1913-01-19
BY JULIA CHANDLER MANI.

William Faversham as Othelloi
Can your mind conJure up stage pic
ture so filed with poetic beauty?
When I talked to Mr.. Faversham last
week concerning his brilliant achieve
ment of the present season in his vividly
human production of Julius Caesar,
and told him that it was rumored that
next year he intends the revival OF
Shakespeare's tale of the swarthy Moor,
he confessed that he has given the mat
ter serious consideration.
1T would be ideal" l suggested.
Yes said Mr.. Faversham, IF only I
could find just the right man for the
role of Othello."
THE right man for Othello!' I cried
in astonishment. why not you?'
He smiled at me in that broad. direct
way of his.
Il have never seen the right Othello
as | conceive the character, although l
have seen some of the greatest actors of
my lifetime in the role he said. The
Moor was a man of noble birth-a
swarthy Southerner, whose sense or
beauty and poetic nature made him the
tenderest lover in all the dramatic his
tory of the world. He was neither a
blusterer nor ranter, yet the stage
pictures of him have always been both.
His capacity for love amounted to genius.
Think of the love of a man being so eX-
quisite that he could not touch even the
soft little handkerchief which the woman
of his alteration had handled without go
ing into ecstacies. That was OthellO
Can you imagine such passion. such
poetry, such temperament embodied in a
fat. clustering actor? Yet that is the
sort of man to which the role is gen.
orally intrusted. In ten or fifteen years,
may be, the public might accept my idea
of Othello."
Has not your Antony been received
with tremendous enthusiasm" / asked,
just by way of reminding Mr.. Faversham
that his portrayal of this famous char
acter is none the less appreciated be-
cause it is unique.
| have talked to no one who saw Mr.
Faversham's production of Julius Cac-
sar'' in the Belasco Theater last week
who did not feel sensibly the aItOgetheS
human quality of his Antony and that
naturalneSs with which he PAINTED the
portrait of Caesars friend which laid
bare the heart of the man. that the
audience might read and understand. l
have seen no Antony who awakened in
my own mind so profound an admiration
as he whom Mr.. Faversham created last
week, and ! can conceive no more ideal
an OthellO than the Moor as conceived
by Mr. Faversham. More than any actor
Of the present age he has that sense of
beauty, that scholarly bent of mind. that
poetic temperament. and that personality
which would give to the lovers of all that
is best in dramatic art the one perfect
portrait of the noble Moor whose simple
ness OF nature was only equaled by the
passion of his love and jealousy.
Mr.. knOblauch. who wrote "Eismet"
and "MilestOnes.' is now at work upon
a modern play for Mr. Faversham's
presentation next season, which does not
necessarily mean. however. that the
actOrmanager will not be seen in an
other Shakespearean revival another
year. for he declared to me last week
that the piece would have to be unusu-
ally big. splendid, and filled with power
to draw him away from Shakespeare Just
now. when he has but just succeeded in
making the public see that there is little
in Shakespeare that could not be writ
ten Of the folk of to-day: that the char
acters who moved through his plays have
their counterpart in the folk of the pres