Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-25
New National.

| When THE High Road, which Mrs
| F'iske and the Manhattan company
| presented at the National Theater last
| night, was classed as "a pilgrimage
| the phrase-maker was exact in, his ex-
preston. To attend the play is to take
journey to shrine. as pilgrimages
| are, and in this case it is a journey to
a shrine of art, the art of playwrit-
ing and the art of play acting.
Pleading the cause of woman usual
ly considered an outcast OF society,
both the playwright and the actress
develop unusual strength that calls for
unusual praise. And few, II any, Will
deny that the cause of Mary Page,
temporarily blinded by the first 81
with her irascible old ferher on the
| farm at 7i1i=s15 Corners, was not
| convincingly pleaded.
| Those with a superficial knowledge
of the problem presented by The High
| Road were pleasantly disappointed IN
finding it lifted far above mere sordld-
| ness or morbidness. With SO much
| happy finesse have both the author ana
| Mrs Fiske-not meaning to overlook
! the communication due other members
of the company-handled the dark side
| of the theme upon which the play
| hinges that for the most part 1t is ab-
solutely lost sight of. Perhaps tnose
familiar with the details of the plot
But it seems lifted far out of that
classification by it's interpretation
The Mary Page of Mrs. F'iske is an I'M
usual character, as the strong women
on the theaters stage as Wen as on Ire
stage invariably are. Mrs Fiske makes
the 'delineation wonderful She portrays
the practical feminine philosopher, the
woman on the high ro>d who smiles not
only when the sun lights up her hair.
but when the rain beats into her face as
she trudges along, who has known SIN
and has turned from it with Will, whose
philosophy permits. no vain regrets, but
furnishes strength to replenish the supply
ten or a hundred fold. In but few OF her
| recent characters has Mrs Fiske been
able to show SO superbly that art that
enables her to make scene big without
in the least seeming to exert herself to
make it so. There is little attempt to
strain the heartstrings or rack ones soul.
Her portrayal is direct appeal to the
intellect Sentiment is replaced by logic
and philosophy. Hard-hearted John Ste
phen Maddox declined to be moved at
all by the sentimental appeal of Mary.
but brainy John Maddox listened to cold
logc So Mrs. Fiske presented to her
audience her appeal for Mary Page and
women of that type. without resort to
sentiment. but with the use of logic-not
that Mrs. Fiske's portrayal was charac-
terized by lack of warmest sympathy,
but she declined to make use of the emo
tional articles and disca -ded every op-
The High Road is unusual in the fact
that Mrs. Fiske is practically the only
woman in the cast One other, Miss Nina
Melville. who is favorably known in
Washington through excellent work in
stock companies. appears only once and
then for but a few minutes at most.
In Frederick Perry and. Arthur Byron,
Mrs. Fiske has excellent support Mr..
Perry shows careful delineation in the
portrayal both of the youthful, farm bred
Winfield Barnes and the developed mid
dle-aged Gov. Barnes. Mr.. Byron's char
acterization of the rich, heartless trust
baron, Maddox, is faithful and satisfy
ing Not so much can be said of the AL
Ian Wilson of Herbert Delmore Aldrich
Bowker made of Silas Page a gem as a
character sketch. General excellence was
maintained by the others of the company,
including Fleming Ward, Lewis Howard,
Harry J. Holiday, George Fearing, Jo-
seph Selman, Frederick Van Rensselaer,
and Charles Burleigh.