New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-03-24
SIDNEY GREENSTREET
A CAPITAL SIR TOBY
The Scenery in the New Manner
Interesting. Suggestive and
Quickly Shifted.
Twelfth Night" 4 comedy ny william
The Hudson Theatre.
THE CAST
By ARTHIR KUHI.

NJ \
Maria Lillian Taultate
Priest ........................ Harry BaTfoot
BY ARTHUR KUHI.
| Il IS TO be hoped that those inhabitants
| o. this wild and preoccupied town who.
! in their easier moments, might nourish 2
strong desire 10 see Shakespeare's come
/ dies we'll PLAYED. viii not awake week
or two hence to the really unusual privi-
/ leee now offered by Miss Anglin and her
company at the Hudson Theatre. The
/ Tanning Of the Shrew.' Twelfth Night
/ AS You Like 1t'-and particularly the
! first two-played with a decent reverence
/ for tradition. with generous intelligence.
| and yet with all the snap and fresh fun
Of something written yesterday-this Is
what Miss Anglin and her company are
Going.
That rare and robustious essence-the
/ Elizabethan spirit-of which We hear the
critics speak sadly from time to time, as
Of something lost TO the world, is felt
again in these performances as 1t Is sell
dom felt enough in the contemporary the
] atre. We see scenes beautiful, piquant, fun
of suggestive color. yet adroitly simple,
/ succeeding each other almost as quickly
as If the comedy were played in the con-
tinuous form for which the more ortho-
dox sometimes lament. No cloGging or
the fun, or weighing down of the charm
OF the thing I'm elaborate upholstery.
And We see a group Of players working
together. not as a chance aggregation OF
unrelated units but like a well-rounded
stock company: as II they knew what
they were about and enjoyed doing It.
The performance Of Twelfth Night
last evening quite came up 10 the level OF
that Of THE Tanning Of the Shrew' asst
week. The suspicion gathered from ;he
somewhat indistinsuished performance OF
AS You Like It." that Miss Anglin might
not fall so readily into the soft charm
Of the wistful Viola as into Katherines
more combatye. controversial manner
seemed unfounded As soon as she aQ-
peared. II Katherine is more in her
natural vein one might not have thought
50 had one seen her Viola first II was
at orce gracefully boyish to the eye and
warm and ardently womanlike in the
feeling revealed, and played over and
liehtened constantly with a really de-
lightful lightheartedness and girlish fun.
No less successful was Mr.. Sidney
Greenstreets Sir Toby-sitogether the
most authoritative and richly AMUSING
Of the three somewhat similar parts h
has played The ease and evenness OF
his work. the way i'm which he constantly
contrived to give Sir Toby's smoky humor
the air OF belonging to our own day-or
20 carry the spectator back into his own
was as rare as it was uproarously funny.
But indeed. the whole company seemed
sure of themselves and inspired with
full-bodied relish Of their work. The fatu-
Gus Maly olio became i'm the hands OF MI
Fuller Mellish as fertile n source Of fun
for the audience as for sir Toby and
Maria and the other conspirators in oil
Was garden. Mr. Max Montesole was al
most as quaint as the Clown as he was
the other evening as Grumio. and Ruin
Holt Bouccault happier in her playing OF
the fne-lady resignation, and sudden
awakening Of Olivia than either Of her
other roles Miss Lillian Thurgste was
vivid thick-sknncd serving maid, nj to
hold her own with Sir Toby and Aeue-
cheek Mr.. Pedro de Cordoba. an eager
if somewhat rhetorical Duke.
The scenery was the most interesting
yet shown and more representative one
presumes. Of Mr Livingston Flats
new" ideas. AS You Like It. showed
little that was novel. "The Tanning OF
the Shrew" somewhat more. but the
scenery for last evenings performance
was both out OF the ordinary and unus-
ually suggestive Loosely speaking. its
purpose was 10 have a few fiat surfaces
and the piquant use OF lights take the
place Of a vast amount Of literal elabora-
ton. For an interior, FOR instance, IN
stead OF heaping the stage with real
chairs. rugs and whatnot Mr.. Plat
merely drops bit Of tapestry or a suG-
gestiNSly pointed back-drop. The theory
is the same as that in the scene in sum
urum" in which the characters went hip
pety-hoppng at their various character
istic gaits across the silhouette OF a city's
minarets and towers
The comic scenes IN the first act.
when the Jester and Maria first appear.
we're frankly in the Heinhardt impress
sionistic manner. and the jolly serving
maid and the clown came on in half
iocular JIG step while the orchestra
raced away with an appropriate tune.
with the cleVerly used bits Of color
the testers haminG red cap, for In
stance. sid stabbing bits Of red
about Maiias dress-the effect was
that Of an unexpected speeding mp
and Tightening OF the whole fabric.
an effect unconventional. but one
which seemed at the moment. AZ any
rate. thoroughly justified and desirable.
There was another interesting use of
color in the scene in the Dukes palace
OOrsino's If music be the food of love
speech. which Miss Anglin played as the
second scene instead of as the first. The
act was simple. but at either side OF the
stage hung curtains. behind which. on
one side. were creenish lights on the
other amethystine.
There was nothing but this cloth 81
some sor,. AMI ten tights behind. y;
every one who came or went through me
draperies. and on the scene Itself. there
vas thrown this rich. jevel-likc glow.
Although the means were of the simplest
they gave an effect Of richness and mys-
terry and jewel-like radiance which be
came a palace. And there was nothing
which could not be shifted ir a twinkling