SARAH AND MRS PAT IN “PELLEAS ET MELISANDE.”

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 755, 25 August 1904, Page 20

SARAH AND MRS PAT IN “PELLEAS ET MELISANDE.”

Ladies, the fashionable ladies who always gather in force at swagger matinee functions (says a London critic), are the curiousest kind of creatures it is possible to conceive. The Vaudeville Theatre was overflowing with them last week when MR.dame Sarah Bernhardt and Mis Patrick Campbell appeared together in “ Pelleas et Melisande.” They came in the biggest sort of hats you can imagine, and they clung to them with a singleness of purpose and wliole’liear'ted devotion tnat was little less than astounding. Just in front of me were a couple of specimens that looked big enough to fill a double bathing machine, and when their wearers inclined their heads to one another, as they did very frequently, they entirely blotted the stage from sight. I couldn t even catch a sight of the floats. I overheard a lady behind me, complaining bitterly that she had nearly dislocated her neck in the effort to watch the performance. I sympathised with the speaker and presently I took a covert glance at my fellow sufferer. What I saw. nearly surprised me into an exclamation of amazement, for the lady who disapproved, so strongly of the hats in front was herself adorned with a Paris creation that was as large as any other three hats in the theatre put together. Next to me sat the Colonial Secretary. He almost had to rest his head on my shoulder when he wanted to see the stage, but as I am a fair-trader, I did not resent this proximity. Until I discovered his identitv- I was in doubt as. to whether the unusual amount of attention I appeared to be attracting was due to my distinguished appearance, or was to be accounted for by the presence of an unusually large smut on my proboscis. It was a positive relief to learn that it was the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton and not myself that was the cynosure of so many admiring eyes. What he meant by being at the theatre instead of in his rightful place, which was at St. Stephen’s fighting - against the teetotal faddists on behalf of the Trade and his Government, I do not pretend to know. I can’ only surmise that when a Cabinet Minister s wife ■writes a play and g-ets it produced it increases his responsibilities. Certainly the people who were gathered to see Madame Sarah in tights and Mrs Pat in French were no bad judges. It was an .intensely interesting occasion, and one to which the two eminent actresses rose with peculiar adaptability and charm. If Mrs Campbell had been acting with English players she would certainly have been the most convincing Frenchman of them all; and supposing all the other male parts had been represented by women, Madame Bernhardt would have surpassed the rest by the man-likeness of her bearing. But Mrs Pat, although she spoke with an excellent accent and seemed to have not the slightest difficulty with the

lines, remained an Englishwoman, and Madame Sarah did not —because, most happily, the feat is beyond even her powers —allow us to feel a doubt on the subject of her sex. But when one has made a note of these two points one has nothing but sincere praise for their impersonations. Madame Bernhardt made Pelleas a graceful, imaginative, and inspiring figure —not a shallow sentimentalist, but a man touched by the finger of fate and fulfilling his destiny with dignified self-possession. Mrs Patrick Campbell had also" caught the idealistic phase of the dramatist’s intentions, and her Melisande was something more, as she was something less, than a mere girl-wife who had fallen in love with her husband’s brother. Her attitude towards Golaud at their first meeting made it evident that, though she might wed that stern, commonplace soldier, she would never be in love with him.; and one saw, long before the avowal was made, that the souls of Pelleas and Melisande were stretching out to one another in the ominous and forbidding} atmosphere of JArkel’s Castle. But the confession scene between the lovers in the wood, the suppressed innocence and purity of the girl’s simple acceptance of his devotion, touched one as nothing else in the play could. It was the gem of the whole performance, and the audience were right in lavishing upon it their enthusiastic appreciation. There was quite a demonstration at the close, and Mrs Pat and Madame Sarah appeared deeply touched by the affection and fervour of the reception accorded to them. “THE PHARISEE’S WIFE.”

At a special matinee on Tuesday, July 12, at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, Mr Graham Browne presented a play in three acts, by George Paston, entitled “ The Pharisee's Wife.’ The critic of “ The Stage ” thus refers to the play The lady whose pen-name is George Paston (probably taken from

“ The Paston Letters ”) has latterly followed up her novel, “ A Modern Amazon,” with various historical studies or memoirs. Miss Symonds has now blossomed forth as a dramatist, and has given the not particularly apt title of “ The Pharisee’s Wife ” to the four-act play which Mr Graham Browne brought out at his matinee at the Duke of York’s on Tuesday. The part of the Pharisee’s wife, Mrs Carrington, was played by that fine emotional actress, Miss Madge Mclntosh. Mr Browne appeared as the redhaired cousin, who temporarily makes the heroine forget her prudence, though not her virtue. Miss Darragh, as the woman who lures Carrington from the path of marital duty, had a part not unlike Mrs Oakleigh, in which role she made such a success last December ; and as the erringhusband (styled a barrister apparently to enable him to receive visitors at his chambers in the evening), Mr C. Aubrey Smith had a character suited for the display of his grave and earnest method. With her four chief parts thus cast, George Paston had reason to expect an effective interpretation of her play, which is interesting on the whole, and has some good scenes, although it is much too talky. Its characters are fond of holding forth on the respective positions of men and women and serious ethical questions generally, and mothers and ladies living apart f rom their husbands discuss fully the r"..itive advantages, of legal and merelv temporal separation. There are happy phrases in the dialogue. Men, for instance, are said to class the virtues according to the sexes ; thus, there are “ cock virtues,” such as “ just resentment,” and “ hen virtues,” such as “ meek forgiveness.” Capable of beingpenned only by a lady writer are the poetic lines beginning, “ The time of danger in a woman’s life is when the first touch of autumn is in the air,” and Mrs Lewis, who causes Henry Carrington to figure as co-respondent in an undefended divorce suit, is described as “ one of the women who have the effect of drugged

wine upon men.” The reason why the authoress calls Carrington a Pharisee appears to be that he forbids his wife to have anything to do with a friend who has got into trouble at the very moment when his own exposure is threatened. Again, he roundly admits that he would not have forgiven his wife had she been the guilty party, and he repeats this unreasonable mental attitude in the last act by falling into a,passion when she gently hints at some momentary imprudence. However, apart from his rigid adherence to “ man’s view ” of the moral • code, in spite of his own heinous lapse from the Seventh Commandment, Carrington seems to have been for many years a considerate husband and a pattern father ; and, for the sake of their charming children, Toby and Rosamund,, at any rate, one feels glad that in theend husband and wife come together again. Possibly, too, commiseration might be expressed for the unfortunate cousin, whose fiery hair and inflammable temperament are both suggested by the dramatist in the name Rufus Pagnall. Although he is nuade fun of to a certain extent, Rufus is concerned in the strongest and most effective scene in the play, that at the end of the second act he extorts the tribute of a tear from Mrs Cardington, who yields so far as to allow him to embrace and kiss her ; and for the finally-forgiven Carrington’s peace of mind, it is to be hoped that Pagnall’s self-chosen exile as a civil engineer in China may be of as permanent a nature as possible. Mrs Carrington had never in the least suspected her husband’s infidelity towards her until one October afternoon, when her cynical friend, Mrs Rolfe (separated from her husband, apparently on the ground of incompatibility of temperament), comes, armed with the evening paper to break the news to her. This,. Mrs Rolfe —something of a character in her way —does with the brusqueness that might be expected of a lady brought up by a naval officer of an uncle, and

taught to swear by him. Mrs Rolfe s iprigrgish stepson, Julian, has long had an affection for the daughter of the Carringtons, Rossy, an ingenuous child now sixteen ; and she and her brother Toby, a patriotic bard in the making, suffer much from the enforced absence of their father, entailed by the temporary separation which Mrs Carrington deems it incumbent upon her to demand. In her words, the husband must “ earn back ” the love and esteem which he had thrown away, and she would forgive as soon as he had learned how to forgive. The respondent in the divorce case, a Mrs Lewis, a* lady with a past, had had several beaux to her apron-strings, but Carrington had been the unhappy man chosen to accompany ' her through the Court, and thus set her free to marry a millionaire. An illness prevents the consummation of this obviously desirable match, and Mrs Lewis, in her trouble, is succoured by Carrington, at the injured wile’s request. During the ensuing year the blameless and unsuspecting Mrs Carrington has an agreeable and also “tame cat ” to hand in her cousin Rufus, who anticipates all her desires, and ends in making their relations talked about. Mrs Carrington, persistently regarding herself in the light merely of an elder sister, has finally her eyes opened by the blunt Mrs Rolfe, and Rufus, on the point of taking leave, obtains a passing influence, which might have proved dangerous. Mrs Carrington comes to confess this momentary weakness to her husband, almost a recluse in his chambers, some fifteen months later ; and there she meets Mrs Lewis, who, with one lung ruined and ordered to winter in Monte Carlo, comes to beg of Cardington the trifling sum of £2OO in cash, which he obligingly goes out to fetch. Imprudently opening the window on this late December afternoon, the divorcee is seized with a paroxysm of coughing, in which she is tended by the woman she has injured ; and this kindness induces the ci-devant Mrs Lewis to hasten her departure, and to do all she can to reconcile the Carringtons. The husband’s prejudices, as already shown, hinder this, but of course George Paston, who will probably construct her next play better, and reduce her over-copious dialogue, makes things end happily, the wife saying, “ It is easier to pardon when one is a fellow sinner.” Mr Graham Browne acted with a most telling rough intensity Pagnall’s passionate outburst and exultant sense of possession just before his final exit ; and Miss Madge Mclntosh, as serene and womanly as ever, made Mrs Carrington a most lovable character in all her phases. Indeed, she rendered the wife’ a living personage. Mr Aubrey Smith judiciously laid stress on the husband’s better nature, and certainly gained ait the sympathy the man deserved. Miss Darragh, appearing in the last act only, gave a striking picture of a reckless but not altogether bad woman in the last stage of consumption, and the reality of her acting gained for her a warm round of applause. . Mr Charles Quartermaine was amusingly prim as Julian Rolfe, whose free-and-easy stepmother was capitally played by Miss Hilda Rivers. Miss Mollv Pearson was quite charming in the bright-ly-written role of Rosamund, and much fun was caused by Master Hugh Wakefield as Toby, who plagiarises Shakespeare unblushingly, in his holiday task, “ Ambition, a Poem,” and wonders whether he may safely introduce therein references to Mr Chamberlain or Cecil Rhodes. Miss H. M. Fraser was acceptable as Mrs Carrington’s old-fashioned mother, and Mr George Trollope gave a clever sketch in the incidental character of a tempted lad, whose words remind the Pharisee of his own unresisted temptations. “ The Pharisee’s Wife ” was “produced ” by Mr Granville Barker, and was favourably received at this special matinee, Mr Graham Browne announcing, at the close, that the author was not in the house. THE PARIS STAGE. Paris, July 12. The custom that has prevailed at the Comedie Francaise for years past has again been adopted by M. Jules Claretie. I refer to his practice of giving some young dramatist the chance of a nearing at the end of the season. Truth to tell, M. Francis de Croisset, whose thfeeact comedy “ Le Paon,” was produced on Saturday night, has come very well out of the ordeal, and his present success will serve to compensate him for the disappointment he must have felt when his “ Cherubin ” was withdrawn from the same house some few years ago at its final rehearsal. It is the thinnest of thin stories the dramatist tells in “ Le Paon,” but it is all so brightly written and ends so happily that the spectators leave the theatre with a delightful feeling of bienetre about them. The peacock of the title refers to a self-satisfied, boastfully vnin, Baron Boursoufle, who, though he owes his neighbours no grudge, thinks an enormous amount of himself. Besides being anxious always, to please, it is his ambition in life to astonish everybody.

During a shooting match one day with a party of friends Boursoufle makes a bet that within a certain number of days he will have gained the affections of a pretty little peasant girl, named Annette, belonging to an inn in the town, and only a short time elapses before his companions have to acknowledge he has won his bet. Upon their telling him his new conquest would cut a sorry figure in Paris if he were to take her there, he de~ termines to accept their challenge, and he carries the girl off and has her instructed in singing and dancing, for he purposes giving a ball, of which he wants her to be the belle. It happens, however, that poor little Cydaline, as she is now called, loses all her self-possession in the presence of so many strangers, and she can neither sing nor dance from sheer nervousness. Finding herself alone with a certain Lucinde, who had long been known as Boursoufle’s mistress, she receives advice upon which she acts with such effect that presently she is not only able to sing and entertain the assembled guests, but she has the courage to send Boursoufle about his business —that is to say, out of the house he had only just g-iven her. In the third ‘act the couple come together again, for Boursoufle baying been slightly wounded in a duel it is the devoted Annette who nurses him. And 4,piling him she loves him, and he, on his side, finding he was wrong in attributing another lover to her, the pair arrange to marry on the condition imposed .by Annette that he will give up his objectionable habit of boasting. The comedy is delightfully acted by MM. de Feraudy, Georges Berr, Frontin, Joliet, Garry, and Mpad a mes Leconte, Cecile Sorel, De Fava, and Clary amongst others, all of whom do full justice to the dramatist’s sparkling dialogue. For record purposes only I mention the production at the Cluny of a three-act vaudeville, by Gaston Marot, entitled “ Rabiot,” which is a summer entertainment of such a small order of merit as not to be likely, I think, ever to find its way to England. Mdme. Aino Ackte is leaving Paris for Bayreuth, where she will discuss some important projects with Mdme. Cosima Wagner. Paris is o-oing to spend £9640 on Thursday’s fete, £4OOO of which is to be distributed amongst the poor of the city. The sum of £360 will be devoted to the Pasteur monument, whilst £6OB will be swallowed up in the theatrical performances, and £4160 for the different committees in surrounding parishes. The remainder will be spent on illuminations and fireworks, of which latter there will be a liberal display in about a dozen parishes. Respecting the children in the schools, 28,000 tickets for matinees are to be given away, and the Municipality will organise three public balls, one on the Place de l’Hotel-de-Ville, another by the Bastille, and the third at the Place de la Nation. Gratuitous performances will be given at the Opera, the Opera-Comique, the Comedie Francaise, the Odeon, the Ambigu, the Gaite, the Nouveautes, the Dejazet, the Athenee, the Folies Dramatiques, the Grenelle Theatre, and the Belleville, Gobelins, and Montparnasse theatres. Octave Mirbeau has made a point of asking Mdlle. Marthe Regnier and M. M. Tarride to undertake the roles of Mdlle. Lechat and Isidore Lechat in “Les Affaires sont les Affaires,” which in August is going to tour in all the leading watering-places of France. They will both be good in their parts. “Le Prince Consort ” is still drawing well at the Athenee in spite of its run of 270 nights. The Khedive is taking advantage of his ‘visit to Paris to patronise the theatres. “ Une Nuit de Noces,” at the Folies Dramiatiques, was one of the first pieces he saw. His Imperial Highness has also been to the Ambassadeurs Music Hall in the Champs Elysees. “ Les Romanesques et La Nuit d’Octobre ” are to be taken on tour by M. Vast, with Mdme. Moreno as star of the troupe. Beginning at the Eden Theatre, at Vichy, the company will visit Royat, La Bourboule, Le Mont Dore, Lyon, Aix-les-Bains, Divonne, and Evian-les-Baines, amongst other places. As the leading singers will be taking their holidays, “Le Fils de I’Etoile ” will now be withdrawn from the opera programme till the middle of September. The receipts at the Grand Opera during the month of June, amounted to £9716, or an average of £648 for each representation given, the largest audiences having been attracted by “Il Trovatore,” “ Faust,” and “ Le Fils de I’Etoile.” M. Samuel, of the Varietes, hasi specially engaged M. Baron for the role of King Bobeche in Offenbach’s “ Barbe-Bleu ” and Lecocq’s “ Fille de Madame Angot,” his will be the two first productions given on the re-opening of the theatre in September. M. Baron will also be given a part written for him by the authors, MM. de Flers, de Caillevet, and Claude Terrasse, in their new operette, “M. de la Palisse.”

M. Leon Xanrof is going- to appeal to the Minister M. Chaumie respecting the

prohibition of his new play “L’Etranger,” to which objection apparently was taken by the Censor because it contains a scene from the war of 1870.. Another prohibited play is that of M. Emile Brun, entitled “ Le lit No. 16,” which is said to deal severely with L’Assistance Publique. At the funeral of Mdme. Marie Laurent the other day, three speeches were made over her grave in Montmartre Cemetery. The first was delivered by Mdme. Poilpot, the Vice-President of the Actors’ Orphanage, the second by M. Adrien Bernheim, who spoke in the name of the Minister of Public Instruction, whilst M. Leloir, of the Comedie Francaise. referred in touching terms to the actress who had spent more than sixty years of her life on the stage. All the children from the Orphanage attended the funeral, many of the girls shedding bitter tears at the loss of their “ mother,” as they were in the habit of calling their kind benefactress.