The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-01-18
ADJUSTMENTS
Last Night,s PLAY.


Garden of Allah" he probably never
dreamed of its ever having a stage
setting, else he might have confined
his scenes to less spacious vistas. But
in the dramatization of his wonder
full novel, in collaboration with Mary
Anderson de Navarro, he has sue
ceeded. IN conveying just the atrnos-
phere, the glamour, the wonderful
charm that one finds in the pages of
the understanding that few play
wrights accomplish, in presenting a
play which deals, as does this, with
the Far East and its weird places and
peoples.
In staging the Garden of Allah"
many talents have been used to create
marvellous whole, and the atmos-
phere of the East is reproduced with
! all the resources of stage mechanism
and electrical effects.
The first scene, which discloses the
desert just before dawn, with single
star blinking near the horizon, fol-
lowed by the uplifting of the suns
great arc, and the human note struck
by the passing of caravan, gives the
keynote of the drama.
The wonderful garden of Count An
teoni, with its palms and fountains
and forest vistas is wonderful
piece of stage scenery, with its sooth-
ing impression of GOODNESS and Ian
guor, as contrasted with the burning
sands of the desert. One of the most
effective pieces of realism was the
sand storm in the desert.
But the setting was only the set
ting-a wonderful staging of won
derful play, which gripped one with
it's interest.
There are nine scenes, and they
are all surprisingly beautiful.
Edyth Latimer's portrayal of Dom
I'M is womanly, lovable, and beauti-
full, and is the character that Kitchens
created, from the hour of her arrival
at Benz Mora, until the remuneration.
Lawson Butts characterization Of the
renegade monk is well portrayed, the
coward in fear of his conscience, the
renegade who SCOTS at the church,
the lover who realizes that marriage
means misery.
The scene in which Miss Latimer
probably excellent any other was that
played in the garden of Count An
teoni, in which Boris, striving fu-
tilely to aver the confession of his
love, is driven to this confession by
the notes of Larbi's flute. The meet
ing of the garden is magnificent
It is wonderful play-almost
pageantry. And it is wonderfully well
acted. There are moments in the
play when Boris rises to heights of
greatness and Miss Latimer gives one
the impression that she is not arriv-
ing but has already arrived.
The fact that Miss Anderson, her
self great artist, gave her talents
to the working out of the drama to
its cli1naxes, and that Kitchens him
self staged the scenes, may have
much to do with the satisfaction there
is in the playa real satisfaction,
and one seldom given, in having lines
and settings, actors and atmosphere
so harmonious, as to give the impress
sion not so much of realism as of art
and after all that is what we seek
in any great drama.
1t is like the mirage OF the desert,
so real, SO beautiful, so vivid and yet
fraught with glamour. 1t is like the
music of Larbi's flute, with its pas
sion sweet note of love and anguish.
If the play itself has not been grip
ping-if the scenery and mechanical
and stage effects had not been won
derful, the dromedaries and the high
stepping Arabian steeds, the diminu-
tive donkeys, the goats and kids and
sheep, as they moved across the stage
in the softly weird light, the swarthy
men clad in flowing burnouses and
gay turn turbans,, the French Saphis
in baggy trousers and kapis would
all have held one with the charm of
the Orient, which they conveyed.
There was troop of Arabs, real
Arabs, from the real desert; and the
dancer, Nine. Faddma of the Ouled
Males tribe, was not the least inter-
esting of the many features which go
to create the atmosphere of a most