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Show I THE DRAMA i The many friends of 11. S. Goddard will be glad to learn that this popular baritone will give his concert in the tabernacle Monday night. Nov. 2S. Mr. Goddard has won great distinction distinc-tion in London in his appearance in Queen's hall. Albeit hall, etc., with j some of the best soloists of Kngland and the continent, and is said to have obtained seme' tine press notices. He w ill be assisted in this concert by Professor McCle'JJan 'at the piano and in an organ number: Willard Weihe. violinist; Arthur S'fiephercl. pianist, and the Tabernacle choir, under the direction direc-tion of Evan Stephens. A novelty will'' be performed on the! occasion. "The Pastorale," by Guil-mant. Guil-mant. the famous French organist and composer, written Tor piano and organ, will be played by Messrs. Shepherd and McClellan. It is one of the master's most daintily written compositions and will make a good impression. Catholics are safe in taking the opinions opin-ions of John Talbot Smith upon the merits of actors and plays. His contributions contri-butions to Donohoe's along such lines bear no resemblance to the criticism of daily press critics, that which is punctuated punc-tuated "by "avlula'tlon "more "frequently than it is by genuine criticism. Writ--ing of Mrs. Fiske, John Talbot Smith says she is the most capable actress of her day on our stage. She has that biting quality in her acting which grips -the spectator, ' no matter how-trifling how-trifling the play. 'Ada Rehan can be innocuous in some plays, and so can Julia Marlowe.;-, t's.. Fiske always finds the intellectual or the emotional acid in' the poorest character, and secures se-cures the personal success. Not having yet reached the end of her powers she has a very eminent future, rosy with promise, awaiting her in the next decade. de-cade. , Yet what can the best actress do without plays?' The1-really strong plays are not many, and not so very strong. In fact the English playwright no longer lon-ger produces vigorous and memorable dramas, even of t,he transient order. Clever plaj's.-bright plays, interesting plays, like, those of Augustus Thomas and Mr. Pinero; savage plays like Ibsen's Ib-sen's and lop-sided gay melodramas after the Harding Davis mode, and farces to suit the talents of Mr. Haw-trey: Haw-trey: Clyde Fitch bubbles of soap-and-water. Star misfits, for Julia Marlowe and Ada Rehan. recipe-plays from the cook-shopf Wil Ham Brady, caramel-dramas caramel-dramas from the European confection-! confection-! cry of Charles. Frohman. plays for the j Drew, family in all. its branches; all ' these we have in abundance. They are of the same nature as boneless -codfish, not merely invertebrate, but flabby. Oh. yes. they taste well; so does boneless bone-less codfish. tOne sleeps very, well after them, and their memory burdens no part of the brain. Not one of them has fin idea or am emotion worth.-record ing.' Both idea's and emotions have disappeared disap-peared from the New .York play, or from the dramatist. So well is this singular sin-gular fact appreciated in certain quarters quar-ters that one dramatist, in the pay of the syndicate, undertook to supply a play a month, to keep one theatre going, go-ing, with his own dramas. He found no necessity for ideas and emotions, only for good recipes. The 'pTay which" portrays por-trays real life, human emotion, which grips the heart-strings, or thrills the marrow, and leaves the undying impression, im-pression, even though" it be only third-rate third-rate literature, ha.1) ; vanished." The Haw trey fancy, A Message from Mars, was of that sort, presenting an idea and an emotion in the most charming manner. The play could not be called great in any except the financial sense, but it wa-s a play to be remembered with intense satisfaction. |
