The Washington times., 1913-03-23
MRS. F|SKE COMING
IN THE HIGH ROAD"
Play That Has Aroused Vast
Discussion To Be Seen at
the National Theater.

Mrs. Fiske ard the Manhattan Com
pany in Edward Sheldons new play,
The High Road" written expressly
for Mrs. Fiske. will open weeks en-
gagement at the National tomorrow
evening, matinees being scheduled for
"Wednesday and Saturday
The season has thus far brought no
engagement more rich in promise, for
Mrs. Fiske has well earned the distinc-
ton of being the leader of the Ameri-
can stage, and she brings this time
play that has aroused vast discussion
and brought 10 Mrs. Fiske perhaps the
most wonderful critical tributes of her
career.
In his new play the author of Sal
walton Nell,'' THE Niger" and THE
Boss, has chosen a broad and very
human theme, and in its exposition is
said to have wrought with striking in
terest and virility- His story concerns
the great epochs in the soul progress
and spiritual growth of a woman. who
from the depths of early ignorance and
soul-cramping environment. reaches the
heights of moral and useful accom-
plishment.
Woman's Life Story.
In THE High Road the span of the
play is unusually extensive, as it COW
ers practically the whole of the wom-
ans life story, the different acts. or
parts as they are termed. marking
different epochs therein. In SO far as
the various phases of development are
concerned, each part is almost a play
in itself, and the outlet for Mrs. Fiske's
comprehensive genius is therefore quite
unusual.
The first epoch deals with the life of
Mary Page in her youth. which was
spent under circumstances of cruelty
and hardship on her fathers farm.
Early deprived of mother love and
education, she was the household slave,
but a great spirit had been born within
her, and it took its first fight into a
world of beauty and luxury. This did
not satisfy, for her moral nature was
struggling for expression, and she left
il all to go out into the world to earn
her living with her hands, to take up
daily toll as sordid as that of her
early years had been.
Finding an opportunity to enlist in
the cause of the weak and down-trod-
den. she does SO to the exclusion of all
thought of self. As the years pass she
gradually becomes one of the great
servants of humanity, until at last she
finds haven in the reverence of hun
dreds of thousands of those to whom
she has been an anger or deliverance,
and in a great and abiding love. 1t is
with the winning of the latter and in
the saving of IL, and with IL, the DO
litical future of her husband, that tine
dramatic interest of the story is most
concerned.
Role Is Excellent.
The role of Mary Page, in Mrs. Fiske's
manner of treatment, has proved one
of the most sympathetic and engrossing
that the stage has known in many
years. 1t brings a new Mrs. Fiske
into artistic view, Mrs. Fiske of in
finite sympathy and tenderness, and vet
the same Mrs. Fiske of former triumphs
in briliiance. power, strength and re-
sourcefulneSs in art
Perhaps the best acting ensembles
with which the American stage is ac-
quainted are those which are always
found in the support of Mrs. Fiske.
Pre-eminent as are her own gifts, she
has never depended upon them alone,
but has maintained a standard in her
supporting company.