THE WEEK. WILSON BARRETT AS CLAUDIAN, IT is always an agreeable task, when one is called upon to give his first impressions of an actor, to speak with emphasis and without quibble. For example, when one can say honestly and heartily of a man, “This is a great actor," or "This is a fine actor," without urging distinctions and subtleties of criticism, the effect is strong and decisive. But when, as in most cases, one is obliged to draw sharp lines, to hesitate, to praise and condemn in a breath, the effect may be confusing and is hardly gratifying. The fact is that nearly all actors of the first or second class reveal faults that are as conspicuous as their virtues. An actor whose work presents an absolute balance of talent and technical training is altogether exceptional. Mr. Wilson Barrett, who made his first appearance on our stage last Monday evening, at the Star Theatre, and whose distinction on the British stage has been won by thoughtful, vigorous and skilfully directed effort, is the kind of person whose acting cannot be fairly described in a sentence. Not because there is complexity in it, nor because it is at any point obscure, but simply because Mr. Barrett has not yet mastered his own talent. That he is capable of being, and that he will be, a finer and more brilliant player than he appears to be at present, we feel assured. He is a comparatively young man, his career in the keen public gaze has been brief, and he is now undergoing what may be called the difficult labor of self-analysis. If there were nothing latent, nothing more promising in his acting, than what we are now permitted to observe, we should certainly be disposed to rate Mr. Barrett lower than he has a right to be rated. But it is evident that he is a man of intellectual will, and there can be little doubt, therefore, that his course will be steadily and rationally progressive. Mr. Barrett is an exceedingly able and interesting actor, at times an impressive actor. He is very happy in his natural gifts. In appearance he is gracefully shaped, of symmetrical size and proportions, athletic without coarseness, sturdy without obesity. His head is thoroughly handsome, his countenance strong and frank, his eyes bold and expressive. As to his voice, that is a sweet, bell-like baritone, rather metallic in its upper register, yet quite flexible enough for the stage. Mr. Barrett possesses, also, quick perception and imagination. There is nothing sluggish in the drift of his mind. He has both pictorial and picturesque sense, two things which are seldom found in one actor. He can express robust feeling, or tender and delicate feeling, without serious exertion. He is manly, clear and sensible. Nature may not have treated Mr. Barrett opulently, but it has treated him generously. But Mr. Barrett will never be a thoroughly good actor until he learns, in the harsh school of education and experience, how to treat nature generously. We may point out briefly that the total effect of Mr. Barrett's performance of Claudian is charming something to be accepted and remembered. It is equally true that this effect might be considerably heightened. Mr. Barrett frequently mistakes posturing for dramatic action. There is too little variety, bending, impulse in his manner; he is apt to be slow and stiff at moments that should inspire natural force, and to be forcible or artificial when simplicity would be most telling. His reading is marred by didacticism, by improper and uneven emphasis, slight and unimportant words being important in his speech, and words of deep significance are slurred or swallowed. There are both over-schooling and under-schooling in Mr. Barrett's acting. That even training which has only one object to let the natural man express himself naturally, within the limits of refined taste and judicious art - is much less apparent in his performance than a genuine talent, which is not invariably certain as to right expression. In Miss Eastlake, Mr. Barrett has a sympathetic and trustworthy associate. His company has been carefully drilled, and contains several competent persons. The play, 46 Claudian," is a moral allegory. It is constructed by a clever dramatist, who understands the mechanics of the stage. and it was written by a still cleverer dramatist, who falls short of being a poet. The plan of the work is large, majestic and pictorial. Its movement is necessarily slow, since it merely depicts the passage of Claudian (who is doomed to eternal youth and a blighted existence, to the misery of seeing his noblest actions turned to causes of ruin, despair, and death) from the vineyards of Bythnia to the city of Charydos. In the consideration of a play like this-which is really a tragic panorama-the question of probability or reality does not arise. As a spectacle of life and death, of evil and justice; as a poetic and ethical idea revealed in a series of pictures that enchant the eye and the imagination, "Claudian" stands as a work of original power and permanent beauty. And we may add that the highest artistic capacity is shown in the stage presentment of this work. In exquisite coloring, harmony of purposes, historical design, perfect illusion and æsthetic completeness, the presentment of "Claudian" has seldom been surpassed. G. E. M. THE O'REAGANS. THE mirth of Mr. Edward Harrigan's latest piece is made to rotate about a new, crisp onethousand-dollar bill. This valuable vehicle of humor is the concentration of many contributions gathered by one Bernard O'Reagan from his friends along the water front, and is designed to act as a poultice for the present woful exigencies of the Irish cause. The actual application is to be performed by a second Bernard O'Reagan, an M. P. for the County Mayo, who has come to America in search of funds and a high old time. In one of those tangled yet ludicrous moments, which are constantly occurring in Mr. Harrigan's plays, the precious bill gets mixed up in a mustard plaster and applied to a sudden spasm of pain on the American O'Reagan's back. Then when the note is missed, its disappearance is attributed to the oblique honesty of one of the accidental characters of the play. Thus do we have a reason given us for following the two O'Reagans in their pursuit of business and enjoyment through the tortuous picturesqueness of lower New York and a casual diversion to Sheepshead Bay. The mustard plaster becomes so irritating to the flesh of Mr. O'Reagan during a negro hair-cutting match down in "Gilligan's Court," that he calls "time" in order to have it torn from his back. After several circuitous incidents the bill is recovered for good and aye, and all hands are saying farewell to the Irish O'Reagan on the deck of a Cunard steamship. Then a real bona fide M. P. pops up and denounces the previous wearer of that title as an impostor. The curtain is rung down on the grand march of The U. S. Black Marines," and we leave the theatre satisfied that Mr. Harrigan has given us one more decidedly humorific portraiture of a life that is. Mr. Harrigan's characters are acknowledged to be pre-eminently lifelike, and in "The O'Reagans" he has never fallen short of his usual skill in the shaping of them. Though we have already been made familiar with each of them, yet the manager is constantly training the individuals of his company to a finer power of portrayal, and to those of us who can observe and detect the humor of the peculiar 64 types that are scattered through the unornamental districts of New York, the Irish, GerThe man, negro, and Chinese characters in O'Reagans' reach us in just the way that Mr. Harrigan intended they should. Much of the dialogue in the piece is unusually bright, and more than once are we astonished by an exceedingly philosophical metaphor. Mr. Harrigan has given himself one of his conventional parts, while Mrs. Yeamans is permitted to emerge for but a brief instant from her usual Celtic naturalness in order to be wildly absurd as a Chinese woman. Mr. John Wild has a prominent negro part which no one but he could do so well. Every other member of the company is excellent. Of Mr. Braham's new songs it can be said that they are quite up to that composer's usual standard, a negro dance - a rhythmic melody in a minor key-- being actually entrancing. It would seem feasible to predict an extended run for “The O'Reagans." C. M. S. M. MISS DAVENPORT AS BEATRICE. MISS FANNY DAVENPORT'Ss present engagement at the Union Square Theatre, which began last Tuesday evening, is likely to be a very interesting one. Miss Davenport was never in better form than at this moment. She has regained her old, lithe, graceful figure, and she has lost none of that soft and sensuous beauty which, only a few years ago, excited so much admiration. Furthermore, the hard work accomplished by her recently in all classes of drama in Shakespearean comedy, in the intense French comédie, in heavy English melodrama has matured and expanded her intelligence, broadened her style, and increased in other respects the artistic worth of her acting. - Miss Davenport hardly succeeds yet in revealing the deep, womanly sincerity which is hidden beneath the banter and frolicsome spirit of Beatrice, but there are moments of great vigor and brilliancy in her performance, notably in the church scene, after the departure of Hero. Miss Genevieve Lytton, by the way, is a very lovable Hero, and a very lovely and intelligent young woman. She would be a valuable person in any company. The management of the theatre co-operated with Miss Davenport in giving this revival of "Much Ado" something better than a commonplace setting. But Mr. Voegtlin has a leaning for excessive and garish color, and fails, therefore, to give subdued artistic effect to his scenes. WALLACK'S REOPENING. THE reopening of Wallack's was effected with more than usual brilliancy this season. The audience was very large and fashionable last Wednesday evening, the action on the stage was observed with that kind of interest which is eager to find pleasure, even where pleasure may not exist, and the new play, "Harvest," by Mr. Henry Hamilton, was received quite cordially. For the first time in our remembrance Mr. Wallack failed to appear upon his own stage, at the enthusiastic call of the assemblage, and make his immemorial little speech. He contented himself with exhibiting his handsome, familiar face from one of the lower boxes. It Mr. Hamilton is an Englishman, of course. His play was produced recently in London. is given at Wallack's in a particularly effective manner, with a strong, even cast, and with scenic adornments that are exquisitely artistic. The two exterior scenes, painted by Philip Goatcher, are perfect illusions, and fascinating combinations of color and atmosphere. The play "Harvest" is uncommon to this extent it presents two jeunes premiers as old men (Mr. Bellew and Mr. Kelcey), and a "leading juvenile lady " (Miss Annie Robe) as an elderly, white-haired woman. They are all young enough in the prologue; but the prologue is only a fourth of the play. It must be remarked, also, that neither of these characters command much sympathy. Under the guise of a cynic, Mr. Kelcey acts the part of a rogue. Mr. Bellew is cruei, selfish and egotistic. Miss Robe is eager to sacrifice her son (Mr. Creston Clarke) to an absurd scheme of vengeance. The result is discordant and disagreeable. Nevertheless, "Harvest" is a clever and ingenious play. The prologue is interesting and dramatic; the second act contains a delightfully humorous scene and a strong climax; the first act is prolix; the third is diffusive and weak. The play is written in a crisp, sparkling style, and is acted with undoubted ability. FROM THE O'REAGANS," "I will take you down to the Hoffman House and fire a cocktail into you." Shure, we don't ate that parrt av a burrd in Oireland." Conceit is a hump on the back of intelligence." "The foreign population rule this town; the Dutch rule the west of it, the niggers the east of it, the Italians the south of it, and the Irish the whole of it." "We will go down to Gilligan's Court." Ah, ha! There was a Gilligan coorted moi sister in the ould country." "I'm going to Europe in the spring," said W. J. Florence recently to a New York Sun reporter. "I don't know what I shall play there. Next winter I'm going to have a theatre of my own in New York. I'm tired of traveling around. I've been on the stage since I was 17, and I'm 54 now, although I don't feel 34. My first professional appearance was in Richmond, Va., as Peter in The Stranger.' I like to play Bob Brierly and Capt. Cuttle in Dombey and Son,' and Jules Obenreizer in No Thoroughfare.' My version is different from that played by Fechter. My play was dramatized by Charles Dickens, the author, and Wilkie Collins. I met H. A. Jones, the author of The Silver King,' yesterday. He's going to write a play for me. Next week I intend to rehearse a new play that was written for me by a Mrs. Allen, of St. Louis. It is to be called The Man from Texas.' It is very funny, and both Mrs. Florence and myself have capital parts. How many times have I played The Mighty Dollar?' I can't begin to tell you. I've played Bob Brierly 2,000 times. Í rather like the idea of taking up melodrama for a change. Do you know a comedian gets tired of being funny? Thomas, is the emperor of China's supper ready?" HE CAST OF CHARACTERS: Two Notaries learned: in the law, Mr. Lionel Brough Mr. Sid. Brough 7 Mr. E. Marshall Miss Clyde Howard Mr. H. Tompkins Mr. John Barnum Miss Edith Brandon Miss Constance Louseby Miss Frances Lyton Miss Nellie Woodford Miss G. Dustin Miss B. Barrows Miss Evelyn Vale Miss Violet Dashwood Miss Alice Lethbridge Miss Violet Cameron $8, $10, $12 Balcony $1.50 Admission Broadway, cor. 30th Street. Sole Proprietor and Manager, $1.00 .50 Mr. Wallack begs to announce the opening of the regular season on Wednesday evening, October 13, with the production of a new and original drama, by Henry Hamilton, Esq., entitled HARVEST. CHARACTERS IN THE PROLOGUE: Noel Musgrave..... Mr. Kyrle Bellew Geoffrey (his son, Miss May Germon age five years). Captain Tresssider.. Mr. Herbert Kelcey CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY: Sir Noel Musgrave... Mr. Kyrle Bellew Attention is respectfully called to the new proscenium borders and draperies, made by A. Kimbel & Sons, 7 E. 20th St. STAR Thirteenth Street TEATRE and Broadway. Broadway, bet. Thirtieth and Thirty-first Streets. EVENING AT 8. SATURDAY MATINEE AT 2. Messrs. Miles & Barton. LITTLE JACK SHEPPARD. JONATHAN WILD Blueskin. Sir Roland Trenchard Mendez. Kneebone Mr. Wood Little Jack Sheppard Thames Darrell Winifred Wood MR. N. C. GOODWIN Mr. C. B. Bishop Mr. E. F. Goodwin Mr. F. S. Ward Mr. Frank Courier Mr. Albert Hart Miss Loie Fuller Miss Rose Leighton Miss Addie Cora Reed Stevie McAleer. . . Mr. Richard Quilter Rit Bloomfield Mr. William West Bedalia McNeirney. Miss Annie Yeamans Kate McNeirney An Unfortunate Kate, a Ballet Girl Mrs. Kehoe . Miss Amy Lee Miss Annie Langdon Miss Nellie Wetherell Mrs. Silvie Dreams. Miss Emily Yeamans DALY'S THEATRE An entirely new comedy in four acts (based on a German play by Dr. OSCAR BLUMENTHAL), adapted by Mr. AUGUSTIN DALY, and entitled: AFTER BUSINESS HOURS. HOWARD'S No. 51 East 11th Street. BOOKS AND STATIONERY. Subscription received for all papers, Periodicals, etc. All Dramatic papers kept constantly on hand. Every professional should learn the use of the Type Writer for their business and personal correspondence. The "American Type Writer Co." Sell and exchange all styles of machines. We manufacture a Key Board for the use of learners, which enables any one to become proficient in the use of type writers. Price, $3.00. Office, AMERICAN TYPE WRITER CO., BRUCELINE. The only remedy on earth that restores Gray Hair to its ORIGINAL COLOR. It is not a dye. NEW YORK, March 8, 1886. DEAR SIR: Your "Bruceline" has completely restored my beard and hair to its original color, and I strongly recFRED. LISTER, ommend it. Musical Editor New York Mirror. BRUCE'S HAIR TONIC imparts vitality, restores the blood-vessels of the hair to their normal vigor and causes hair to grow on bald heads, strengthens weak hair and prevents it from falling out. Bald heads treated free until cured. Send for book of testimonials to M. BRUCE, 294 Sixth Avenue, New York. THE STAGE. ACTING AND ELOCUTION thoroughly taught from Nature. Amateurs and Professionals coached. Entertainments furnished for all occasions. Plays read and supervised. "The Lady of Lyons," and other standard plays by pupils, also Literary Entertainments. Positions procured for competent pupils. PRACTICAL SCHOOL OF ELOCUTION AND DRAMATIC ART. J. A. BLEECKER, Director, 4 West 22d Street. |