Show 3 S 5 S s S 2 6 roz 8 ELLA L WILCOX I WRITES OF 0 F MRS FISK FISI IN INI I Ij I I l j MIRANDA IWANDA OF THE TIlE BALCONY BALCONY f t tl Le s 4 0 Copyright 1 1001 by W IV R B Hearst Heans r r ONG SONG AGO A O I learned to place small S value on criticisms of books or plays play L J The young critic is ls dp tsp crude the old too blase to trust Bach mach critic is merely an Individual No o two too minds think in the tho same lines linos lin or orr regard r g rd every book or oti or every play pay from the snipe same point of ot yiew Therefore to know what you will like to read or 01 hear you must read and an hear for yourself i Had H d I read and believed In the criticisms upon Miranda of the Balcony Instead Ins ad of attending atten Ung the first presentation myself I should have diced and remained away way thus missing one of at the rarest theatrical trials of or orm my m experience The critics almost universally declared the play dull and banal and nd devoid of interest A little coterie of three of us all experienced experience playgoers and all disagree disagreeing ing In our ideas regarding many other plays found Miranda of the Bal Balcony Balcony Balcony cony full tull of Interest and charm and our attention was held from the rising to the dropping of ot the curtain on the extremely artistic climax To me the plot seemed delightfully new and entertaining ex I had never read the th book which no doubt added to tomy my pleasure In the play There Is no question regarding genius She Is the great greatest greatest est eat of ot American women actors She maintained her reputation throughout the difficult role of Miranda of the Balcony ro To make snake an audience feel suppressed emotion requires a ape special cial order of ot genius resulting from a rare and tensely strung temperament In which refinement and passion and sympathy are Intermingled Any mentally equipped clever cliver and handsome woman with a good voice can be trained to speak sentences which shall shan stir the enthusiasm of an aud and audience audIence But to sit still and say nothing or next to nothing and yet to cause an acceleration of ot the heart beats of the observer to bring tears and produce an excitation of the sympathies that Is genius And genius Is rare Mrs Fiske does all this as Miranda So far Car as the Balcony s g e r confess It Is the most disappointing part of the play It seems to exist onlin V Vin in name My lIy seat was on the ht hand of ot the stage and so was the Bal Ba Balcony Balcon cony con As a consequence nce I neither saw sa w nor heard the scene enacted there Mrs Fiskes greatest fault Is her lack of ot enunciation It Is always alwa dim difficult cult to understand all she says unless very ve near the stage Even at t close range rang the other evening It was difficult r The one scene where she fell below her splendid best to my thinking was the scene where she was yas expected to forget her reserve and suppression sion si n for tor a few moments and speak and act the love she felt telL I have often otten felt this peculiarity In this great womans art she lacks power In a love loe when the moment of abandon arrives So long as she can restrain and control emotion you feel Its tremendous force When she undertakes to ex cx express express press it she weakens w akens The entire play pia is built around and upon one character which was taken t ken by b another rare artist and real rell genius sJ J E B Dodson It was a delight to see Mr Dodson and Mrs FiSke F In one ne play It was a disappointment to hear so 80 much about Mr Dodson through three acts and to never see him until the fourth But as usual u ual when this artist h 1 he dominates the stage ata e T r remember when he hf came on a few IT mutes only in a play as Cardinal Richelieu yet he was the center and pivot of ot the whole dramatic situa tion flea After ACler you OU went you thought of nobody and nothing in the play but Riche fiche lieu As Ralph Marriner Mr Dodson again aga exhibited his peculiar power p A f most abhorrent character possessed of O all vices and no virtues yet et he held us spellbound by his great art ar arIt It is to be hoped that some New York manager manage will yet have hae the fore tore foresight foresight sight to see what a fortune lies In starring Mr Dodson To T return to Mrs Fiske I haie he h e rarely men lS en anything on the stage equal to her facial expression in the scene where her terrible hus bus band and her noble manly lover loer return together Her face tace was like a piece of sky wh te cloud and sun were painting pain wonderful and changing emotions From startled horror and loathing at the sight of Ralph Marriner It blazed into the most beautiful love ecstasy as she stood fully two minutes in utter silence feasting ber eyes ees upon the beloved b loed countenance It Is a strong situation atlon and the work done by the three actors Is quite beyond criticism One thing which particularly pleased pic ased me In the construction of ot this this pa s that the last act Is the best clear to the drop of the curtain I have hae been so satiated s with strong stron third acts and dull and listless fourth acts where you wait walt Impatiently for the end that It was a genuine pleasure to have the Interest culminating In th the climax Whoever misses Miranda of the Balcony makes a mistake It Is la a feast for tor lovers of good art ar ELLA WHEELER WILCOX COx |