Show f 58 THE Pi!icij 0 DAY-- A like the bursting of a barrel of gunpowder perhaps we 'should get enough sensation to live 'during tlic interval if the explosion to the goin out of our last spark It is this sensational element of modern times1 lyliicli forms the distinctive character of our dramatic-anihovel literature and mak&s up the body of newspapei' writing Every audio! aims for sensation every theatrical' manager enlistfe it into his service and every actor tries t6 be to the public a sensation battery Eut as the sensation eleificnt requires such nice handling to be good the result is the public gets treated to the 'most excruciating sensation novels and plays We must not tire the reader with our metaphysics of literature but shall return to our subject in another rtnunber T ‘with spirit v THEATRICAL REVIEW - i TIia season opened on Saturday with Massinger’s strong old English play: — “ A New W&y to Pay Old Debts” This i the tirst time a Sir Giles OVerreach has ever trod the boards Hn Salt Lake City and until Saturday evening a large portion 'of the audience never witnessed the performance of that 'celebrated play This is als6 'the case with the best dramatic ‘Compositions in the English language The management of our theatre has an uncommon opportunity for the selection of their programmes from that exfen si ve catalogue of choice dramatic literature In England and the States where that catalogue of Ifirst class plays has been drawn Vipbn for generations managers firid it necessary to give the public occasionally something new atstlie expense of erood 'quality but here our management can select from the list of 'best plays in the English language for years and still give the public new programmes The critic has also the same uncommon Cpportunily and we shall re’vietf them when put upon "the stage as though they were Mw frCtu their authors’ pens and had never been reviewed before by abler pens than ours New ‘‘A Way To Pay Old Debts ” is a fine illustrative specimen of the legitimate dranla Its caste consists in strongly Marked character' and moral and uietdphysical portraitures and effects ' ' : ' 8ir Giles Overreach is a strong harsh Conception of a very natural though repugnant character You arc struck at once and struck as With a sledge-hammwith the fact that Sir Giles is a real personality and not ah extravagant ideal of the aiith'Or’S brain Such characters can be found by the thousands though rarely found in so strong a Caste and in making Sir Giles thus strongly marked perhaps as strongly marked as possible to bo natural the author has reached his triumph The metaphysics of Sir Giles consist in a harsh indomitable will arUbition in its grosser qualities A Capacity fertilewith plots it consciousness of to caHy out his purposes a" renlorsolcssfinstinct to etutsh everything in his path and a tiger ferocity for his prey drowning tlite is his semi-savag- e desire to found n family which sceril to be so natural with strong indomitable characters of the marked for exanfple was this in those type Norman conquerors of the Saxdns'rtho gave to England the founders of its aristocracy To have Ills daughter “ Eight ifondrablc” rid to dandle a grandson lord upon bis kriec Sir Giled would Iiavti periled his soul a thousand times ami ruined a hrist of noble families to heap tiieir wealth and lands upon a titled sort Of Ids “Eight Honorable’ daughter Another very marked feature of his character is a remorseless disregard of consequences to himself and Ati atheistic indifference to liis here o’r licfcatVr so long as lie reached the idol object Of his life The whole ‘Cast of Massinger's play is crowded with characters Scarcely a personage is brought out but is a distinct we have a type of the Don individuality In “ Well-born- ” Oiosar Deliaznfi family Justice Greedy is a personality Sir Giles’ legal tool a representative of pettifoggers with a riioral — the lesson that tools always cut their masters’ hands even the cook is a quaint character of olden times and Lady Allworth a noble danie Who cherishes the memory of a noble hus-ban- d dead docs and says good thipgs and at last shorts herself very much it woman by giving her widowed liana to the popular Lord Ldvell lie being irresistibly noble like kef dier-ishe- d and lamented dead one LITERARY MAGAZlffi the fanatical fancy for a name that haunts too many folks of Overreach descent and not at all an unprofitable expose of H - past generation” ' ' The admission that “ A New Way To Pay Old Debts” is au “old English favorite” does not fit with the connection It irf an old English favorite of several generations both in England Th'e play is not and America arid that is significant' enough “ played out” arid need not the sufferance Cf b6iug “ good’ however as an illustration of a fanatical fancy ” Of a past age Sir Giles is a character of the present as vtell as the past Even now he is almost unchanged and his money power is atf when Massinger wrote only so much rfiean’s to make Right Honorable drfughtefs and grandson lords to daridle upon nis knee And tthen lie is not seen overreaching for aristocracy he is elinbing the ladder of the moneyocracy the tiiost power- ful class of the age or aiming for seats and domiharit sway in houses more potent than is now the English' tfo'use 6’f Peers The “faifatical fanC'y” for a name will “bautot too ttiahy folks” of other ages of the “Overreach deseest” To review the play as “not an unprofitable expose of a past generation” i£ very elaborate for critical literature Perhaps Our critic by the term “expose” Intends a different Meaning than it will carry to the public ifhdcrstauding He may ttiean that it is an exposition of a prist generation — a bringing before us of a dramatic portrait gallery of characters who lived and moved in a bygone age One of the masterpieces of great dfanfatic authors is to send down to other times portraitures ttf their otfai In ten generations hence those representative plays Which relay be distinguished as dramatic portrait 'galleries 6f thier times will still survitfe The world will be pleased to’ know What the world was and how it looked when Massinger lived and Shaks-pear- e wrote - The principal plot and cdimterplot arc' held bfctWfeen Sir Giles Overreach his nephew Wellborn and Lady AHforth the three principal characters of the play It has also a i&ino counterplot in which Master Allworth and Margaret Overreach are the principals but we have not space to elaborate oil the plots moral and action of the piece and will leave it for a second review Mr T A Lyne made a very orthodox Sir Giles Overreach Wherever there is required great physical power and that kind of fitfetnphysical power derived from physical weight as well as robust mentality there Mr Lyne ever has and ever will to the last rrierst shine One need not to have sefeti him in his youth to affirm this as constituting his predominant speciality as an actor and to select the role of plays most suited to his Mr McKenzie played becoifiing a public favorite Mrs forte Gibbon was very happy and Mr Simmonds CVef will be in such parts as Master Allworth We lire delighted to find that he has not retired from the stage for though he does not aim to be a “star” there is iio one yet in the Association to take his place More special remarks upon1 tlic pcrforutarice we Will defer until after “A New Way’ To’ Pay Old Debts ” shall have filled the House a tfeeOnd time to show the public ri thing well done Alpha ANTAGONIST! It used to be tlic special delight of ouf boyhood to hear Euckstone the actor repeat an old joke in one of his characters in which he was wont td exclaim to his supposed friend “Tom I love you ! and if you say I don’t love you I’ll knock you down !” Equally funny to us is the attitude of one or two persons we know who liaYe expressed tlicif determination never to believe we love them till we do knock them down To these parties everything we tfay or write is meant lor an attack on trome pet notion of tiieir own and if it is not an attack they think it tfuglit to be We shall be in antagonism to somebody if they can bring it about Happily’ tlic thing is hard to accomplish If we know ourselves we lovtf this people for the sake of helping to establish with them a good and great community we broke Up the dearest associations of life and have endured years of poverty Are have paid too dear for our association with them to have it talked away or broken in upon by any gosssiping tongue As to our articles we feci strongly and write strongly’ hut not in the spirit of antagonism Our worst side we hope is to the weather we wish to speak openly and honestly our views but in the spirit of opposition never r ' |