Mademoiselle Rachel's repertoire is this yearless oldfashioned, or—if people like
the word—less rococo than it used to be ; but 'ire are not sure that we like it a whit the more on that account. The great plays of Ra- cine, if they do nothing else, at any rate afford a fine scope for a tragic actress ; and such plays as _Louise de Lignerolles, which has been brought out this week, only display a talent which we might expect to find at the Vaudeville rather than at the Theatre Francais. The agonies of the de- serted wife, and the gleams of sunshine that occasionally come upon her mind, are of course represented with all force and subtilty ; but we wish to see Mademoiselle Rachel as something better than the heroine of domestic drama. Ionise de Ligncrolles is essentially a poor piece, ineffective if regarded as a melodrama, forced and unnatural if con- sidered as a drama of sentiment. Shortly after its first production at the Francais, fifteen years ago, it suffered an euthanasia, and surely it was not worth the trouble of a resuscitation. We allude to the resuscitation at the Francais last year, and are not blaming Mr. Mitchell for the pro- duction of the piece here. Looking upon his establishment not only as artistic but as historical—as an expedient for telling those who cannot cross the Channel how things are going on in France—we no more blame him for the production of a poor drama, than we blame the proprietors of the electric telegraph for the transmission of ill tidings. Apropos of Ionise de Lignerolles, we may remark that there is a grumble at Paris, which now and then comes to our ears, and which is to the effect that the Theatre Francais is passing its proper boundary-line, and extending its patronage to works which would be better fitted for other establish- ments of less literary pretensions. With our respect for Paris as the metropolis of the living drama all over the world, we regard this as bad news. Let the Gaite, if it pleases, give all the horrors of Jules Janne,: "Femme Guillotinee" in a dramatic form,—as it actually did last Satur- day,—but in Paris and in London let every house stick to its own busi- ness.
Previous page
