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Show JOHN GRIFFITH AS "RICHARD III" r Tragedian Gives Excellent Excel-lent Interpretation. Company Outdoes Wm. Shakespeare, However. John Griffith's presentation of "Richard the Third" was unqucstlon-ably unqucstlon-ably tho best Shakespearean effort given here In recent years certainly very decidedly better than his "Macbeth" "Mac-beth" of two or three years ago when ho essayed to glvo a production despite de-spite tho fact''that his close association associa-tion with John ltarlejcoru Immediately Immediate-ly preceding tho rise of the curtain had Incapacitated him fur anything. Hut John has cut out the Puruna habit and his portrayal of tho crafty, conscienceless vidian Shakespeare makesof "Richard tho Third" left little lit-tle to bo desired. Griffith has tho presence, tho voice, tho magnetism, tho knowledgo of the character to make trio delineation of this vain, ambitious am-bitious tyrant and king highly acceptable accept-able in all its hldeousiicss, and he was deeply appreciated even by those who prefer less tiaglo attractions. Griffith Grif-fith could portray such a character only after profound study of tho writer as well as the Individual character, char-acter, and In the reading of his lines gave cvldcnco of the true artist and a splendid conception of the author's intent. In volce.look and action.Grif-llth action.Grif-llth rose to tho situation In every instance, in-stance, Or tho others In the cast, little good can be said. Claude Soarcs, who portrayed por-trayed tho characters or Uucklng-ham Uucklng-ham and Richmond, was very good but the rest Ach Louie. The critic on tho State Journal, at Ogden, touches this situation rather humor-lously, humor-lously, and wo leave It to him In the following. Ho says: "To hear Griffith and Soarcs In dialogue dia-logue was Indeed pleasure. Hut, Lord of Israel! The balance of the company had no more business on the stage In Shakespeare than ii fish horn has In tho choir Invisible. Mabel Standlsh, as Lady Anne was t-o dismal the ushers wept. Her voice Is a monotone; mon-otone; ono of those serious-sounding weird monotones. Something like a March wind blowing down a tin water pipe Into a rain barrel. Or arPolack lover bewailing tho loss of his sweet-' heart through a long distance telephone tele-phone constructed on a barbed wiro fence. Ruth Gadsby as Queen Elizabeth Eliza-beth was but llttlo bettor, although on ono occasion she did manage to And out that she could say her lines without with-out Imitating a child In its A U O's. As for the two princes: if tho originals origi-nals wero llko these, we do not blame Richard for having them murdered and thrown Into the Thames. They deserved their fate. Andrew Mackcy, as Lord Mayor uf London, resembled a far west sheep herder asking his boss for another supply or sowbelly. The balance of the company, not excluding Plunkett, who acted as Catcsby. performed per-formed their work In much the same manner as tho boy who declared : "Vou'd scarce expect ono of my ngo to speak In public on tho stago." Tho production isn't properly staged either. Imagine the Lord Mayor of London calling ou a king with a retinue reti-nue or two Imckdrivers and ono galley boy fiom a print shop Or a monarch addressing u niagiilticcnt court composed com-posed of four people Griffith ought to dlsbaud this company com-pany and send tho girls back to the lacc-maklng class and tho bakery, where they belong, give tho men tickets tick-ets to the old farm, and get a new aggregation ag-gregation together. Properly supported, sup-ported, and with better stago accessories, acces-sories, he would bo a winner. Hccuuso ho was enjoyable. He was good. Hut It was like eating chocolate drops with tho certainty that castor oil was to folliw, to listen. At tho wooing of Lady Anne beside tho coffin of her murdered husband, It was a pleasure to hear tho keen, crisp, artful, expressions expres-sions of Gloster, but, yo Gods and pickled herring! Her responses! Slio didn't act at all like a woman in grief, nor as a woman undecided as to which course to pursue, but rather llko a woman who had eaten too much tripe and it hurt her. It was tho samo In the tower scene, tho samo In the sceno between herself and Richard HI. "Kerry Oow," hlgshow, Jan. 21st. |