Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel], March 13, 1910, Page 10, Image 54

About Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
10
Just a Glimpse of Many Attractions
BATTLE SCENES IN PLAYS
BATTI.K si <-nts iirt- ever attra< -tivi
to the theater audiences. They
are used freely by dramatists in
nil ages. In the old Klizaluthan days
the tragedies of the playwrights were
full of fighting. War was a favorite
theme of the mighty Shakespeare. His
historical plays and several of his
semi-historic plays are replete with the
wild alarms of war, depicting single
combats and the meeting of armed
masses.
Stage realism, the growth of stage
craft, enables producers to simulate
battle scenes with all ptcturesqueness
of actual conflict. The counterfeit
surpasses the real, as the horrors are
suppressed and one sees only the real.
In "The Round Up" there is an ex
ample of battle which has not been
surpassed in intensity and thrill in any
modern production. The conflict Is be
tween two men and a band of murder
ing Apaches, which grows into a con-
Ilict between the Indians, a troop of
cavalry and a band of cowboys.
The realism of this scene dwarfs the
struggle between Christian and Mos
lem on the walls of Constantinople-
one of the biggest scenes ever put on
the American stage.
The dramatist devises the big effects
and the stage director looks after de
tails. The stage manager is often
more effective than the playwright. In
the big scene in "Burmah" one forgets
all about the play and remembers only
the gatling gun. snarling under the
palms. In "Shenandoah" the incident
best remembered la the detail of a
Kiinner tearing up his n-d shirt to be
used as wadding for a gun. Yet this
big scene showel a roadway along
which the leaderleu army is retreating,
dragging after them a cannon. Sheri
dan, mounted on a charger, rides along
the road, calling to his men to go back
to the front. The incident was a
thrilling one, yet the man with the
red shirt was the soldier the audience
wished to see.
In "The Round Up," while the thrill
and sweep of the battle Inspires as a
LOS ANGELES HERALD SUNDAY MAGAZINE
Realistic Battle Scene in "The Roundup" at the Mason
whole, one Incident lingers in your
memory. When the curtain rises you
are looking apparently into the mouth
of a cannon in the lava beds of Ari
zona, a desolate, sun-tortured waste
spot, "the land of dead things." No
water, no shade, nothing but the piti
less heat beats down on you.
A narrow path winds down the butte
on the left of the stage. Down this
trail ride a band of Apaches in full
panoply of war, grim, silent and por
tent. Not a word has been spoken.
The hoof beats of the horses are not
heard. Only weird music is played, a
sort of dreary thumping accompanied
by a scraping on stringed instru
ments. It Is like the throbbing of the
brain when one is overheated and ex
hausted.
Shakespeare was especially fond of
battles. He made most of his heroes
warriors and placed many celebrated
battlefields on the stage. In "Corlo
lanus" he showed the early Romans
fighting the Volscee; in "Trollus and
Cresilda" it is the hero's struggle be
tween Greece and Troy; In "Macbeth"
thf> war between tyrant and usurper,
and In "Othello" Venice fightlnsr for
supremacy over Cyprus.
In modern days we have big bittle
sc cues in "The Soudan," where strange
customs of war were shown. War is
shown in "Youth," "Cheer, Boys,
Cheer," "Mafeking," "Northern
Ughts," "Jack Cade," "The Gladiator."
"Spartacus." Byron's "Sardanapalus"
and many others.
But in none of the plays haa the art
of the stage director brought such
fidelity to nature as Klaw & Erlanger
have done in "The Round Up," nor
such a thrill of bottle as is shown In
the fight in the lava beds."
♦♦♦
KEPT BUSY
Bacon—How many buttons has your wife got
on the bark c.t that dress?
Egbert—l drn't know.
"Why. you've buttoned It ur often enough
to know, I should think."
"Oh, when I've buttoned It up I've been too
busy to count the buttons!"—Yonkers States
man.
... . „....w . .^.y » ».< - r ^.-: - i.-iin ii - ;~^ .^|^j||^^^ ,
Miss Arleen Hackett in "The Right of Way" at the Majestic
MARCH 13, 1910.