A plunge indeed! but fortunately the swimmers are strong, and able
to save the suicidal Ibsenites. For my part,--that is, as one of the
audience drawn by curiosity,--I should say that were it not for the
excellent acting of all concerned in the piece, and especially of Miss
ELIZABETH ROBINS as the Hanwellian heroine, IBSEN's _Hedda Gabler_
would scarcely have been allowed a second night's existence at the
Vaudeville. Miss ROBINS is so much in earnest--as a true artist should
be--that she excites your curiosity to discover what on earth she is
taking all this trouble about; and thus she compels your attention.
That the result is eminently unsatisfactory is no fault of hers.
The piece itself is stuff and nonsense; poor stuff and "pernicious
nonsense." It is as if the author had studied the weakest of the
Robertsonian Comedies, and had thought he could do something like it
in a tragic vein.
[Illustration: A Powerful Cast.]
In the last Act there is a situation reminding us strongly of one
short scene in _Caste; there_--so delicately and touchingly treated by
its author; _here_--so repulsively treated by IBSEN. Let it be reduced
to serious burlesque, and let us have it played by PENLEY as _George
Tesman_, ARTHUR ROBERTS (with a song) as _Judge Brack_, WEEDON
GROSSMITH as _Ejlbert Loevborg_, Miss LOTTIE VENNE as _Mrs.
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