Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-15
New National.

THE Garden of Allah" the long her
aided l4ebler production from the Gen.
fury Theater New York. made its initial
appearance in Washington last night at
the National Theater, before an audience
which crowded the building almost to
the doors. Seldom, if ever, have capltai
audiences had an opportunity TO witness
realism carried to such an extent as
in this production particularly IN the
staging of a sandstone in the African
desert, and, following il. starry night
fading into the silvery dawn of the desert
skies.
The play depends mostly for its APP
peal upon these and similar spectacu-
lar scenes, of which there are num-
Der. Compa rison. of which there can
be little, between this one of the
demonstrations of Robert Kitchens books
and the other Bella Donna" SO re-
Gently seen at the National with Nine
Nazimova in the title role. is brought
forcibly to the attention of the spec
tator of THE Garden of Allah by rea-
son of the fact that Domini. last nights
heroine, was Hichens good woman in
the desert and Bella Donna was the bad
woman in the same atmosphere. The
result is that Kitchens succeeds in con-
vincing his spectators. just as he in
tends, and just line in the play
declares. that anything may happen in
the land of pure romance, which he
writes so we'll
remained good. and sent back to the
monastery, from which he was rene
sade, the TrappiSt monk she loved and
married, because the claim of God on
him. she felt, was greater than her own.
This Self-Sacrifice. however unnatural 1t
might appear to western eyes, is made
To seem. in the spell the desert weaves,
the supreme thing to do. and the scenes
in last nights play leading up to this,
In which the Trappist monk, Boris
An6rDVSEv nlaNa6 nv Ia Rutt tells
Domini. the woman he loves, of his
frightfui soul struggle, when he found
upon attaining the age of manhood
that he was man with all OF man
temptations, and not merely the monk
he had vowed to God to be. constitute
most dramatic and moving expression
of human emotion.
Domini is played by Miss Dorothy
Donnelly. and. curiously enough, she
has a trick of speech at times very
much like that of NaZimova. She was
satisfying, as was Mr.. Butt, although
it is easy to be seen tand heard) that
both felt the need of very large
stage. so accustomed are they to
speaking so that all might hear Count
Anteoni was played by Edward Nav
son. with splendid repression. and Fa-
Their Roubier by Frank Kingdom, with
tender sympathy. All the other char
acters were we'll taken. in the f1eeting
moments in which they were seen and
heard, for the purpose of impressinS
the local color" on the spectator
Probably no production has ever been
seen in Washington in which there has
been more attention to scenic detail than
The Garden of Allah In the splendid
scene of the starry night in the desert
the effect of falling star is carried out.
In another scene. showing the entrance
TO the monastery to which the reclaimed
monk returns, there are live pigeons COO
ing in the towers. and wheat has been
sprnkled on the ground to carry out
the illusion of the way they feed in peace
there. There are a multiplicity of such
Instances
The audience perhaps missed the usual
orchestra music as that feature was
abandoned so that even that note of the
west could not obtrude itself upon this
faithfully carried out production of the
east.