University College, Toronto, has produced the Antigone of Sophocles with
a success that may make the Oxford com- pany who acted the Agamemnon tremble for their laurels. Probably, nowhere, except at Harvard, where the wealth, as well as the refinement, of Boston was lavishly devoted to the production of a Greek play,—has a Greek play been so well put on the stage as it was last month in Toronto. Thanks to Professor Ramsay Wright,—the Professor of Biology,—the music of Mendelssohn—written for a German translation of the Antigone—was adapted, for the first time, to the Greek words, and the choruses were in consequence admirable, Professor Vines having taught the choruses, consisting chiefly of undergraduates, to give to their movements and gestures that touch of imagination which was needed to give the music :and singing its full effect. The stage, the dresses, and the mechanical arrangements altogether seem to have been exceed- ingly skilful, and the acting created quite an enthusiasm in Toronto, where it was hardly to have been expected that an enthusiastic audience for a Greek play could have been found. Mr. Houltain's Ismene was a thoroughly womanly performance, and Professor Hutton's (somewhat tall) Antigone, though hardly so womanly, appears to have been a complete success. The blind prophet Teiresias (Mr. Fotheringham), and his Guide (Mr. G. Wilgress) were both admirable,—the former showing touches of brilliant power here and there ; and the first Messenger (Mr. W. P. Mackenzie) did his part exquisitely, and looked it too, being the very picture of Hermes in face and dress. Perhaps, the finest group in the play was that formed in the scene where the Messenger tells the Queen and her maids, of Haemon's death. So far as we can judge by the accounts, 'Toronto was fairly carried away by the classical charm of the play. Professor Hutton and his colleagues, who must have spent a world of pains on the preparations, deserve great credit for their brilliant success.
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