Walter Hampden

              ERLANGER THEATRE


WALTER HAMPDEN 

Figure


in four of his Greatest Successes


Richelieu Macbeth Hamlet The Servant In The House


Week Beginning January 8th



Mon. Eve. RICHELIEU


Tues. Eve. RICHELIEU


Wed. Mat. HAMLET


Wed. Eve. RICHELIEU


Thurs. Eve. RICHELIEU


Fri. Eve. MACBETH


Sat. Mat. RICHELIEU


Sat. Eve. RICHELIEU





Week Beginning January 15th



Mon. Eve. The SERVANT in the HOUSE


Tues. Eve. RICHELIEU


Wed. Mat. MACBETH


Wed. Eve. The SERVANT in the HOUSE


Thurs. Eve. The SERVANT in the HOUSE


Fri. Eve. HAMLET


Sat. Mat. The SERVANT in the HOUSE


Sat. Eve. RICHELIEU




Maurice Goldberg



CARDINAL RICHELIEU


Two Weeks Beginning Monday, JANUARY 8th







W
ALTER HAMPDEN this season is taking on a transcontinental tour four of the greatest plays in his repertoire:  Shakespeare's mighty tragedies, 
Macbeth
 and 
Hamlet,
 Bulwer Lytton's ever popular drama, 
Richelieu,
 and Charles Rann Kennedy's exalted and absorbing play, 
The Servant in the House.



Figure


Maurice Goldberg


MACBETH


R
ICHELIEU
 is presented in a new version by Arthur Goodrich, author of another of Mr. Hampden's most successful plays, 
Caponsacchi.
  Mr. Goodrich has not deviated from Bulwer Lytton's highly exciting and ingenious plot.  His work was to simplify the somewhat rhetorical language of the original and eliminate the old fashioned 
asides,
 so that the action might be more closely knit and the movement made swifter.



The play shows the crafty and puissant Cardinal-Premier at the height of his power, in one of the crises in which his authority and life are threatened and the throne of Louis XIII of France is endangered by a conspiracy led by Gaston, Duke of Orleans, brother of the king, and Count Baradas.  How Richelieu, alternately revealing his attributes of the lion and the fox, outwits the conspirators, preserves the monarchy, and unites the sorely distressed lovers, Julie de Mortemar and the Chevalier de Mauprat, provides one of the most thrilling dramas in all stage history.



H
OW effective this version of the play is may be judged by the fact that Mr. Hampden presented it for a record breaking engagement of twelve weeks at his own theatre in New York.  This was the longest run that 
Richelieu
 ever enjoyed and the play is associated with some of the most famous names in the English and American theatres—William Charles Macready (for whom it was written), Samuel Phelps and Henry Irving, Edwin Forrest, John McCullough, Lawrence Barrett and Edwin Booth.





M
ACBETH
 vies with 
Hamlet,

Othello,
 and 
King Lear
 for first place among Shakespeare's great tragedies.  Many critics consider it preeminent.  Certainly none other surpasses it in sheer emotional sweep, or steady progression of dramatic power, or soaring splendor of poetic expression; while no other play is dominated by two characters so vital, so devastating, and so stimulating to the imagination as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.  Mr. Hampden's portrayal of Macbeth has been placed by authorities on acting upon the same high plane as his performances of Hamlet and Othello, which is to say, the finest known to this generation of American playgoers.




M
R. HAMPDEN'S HAMLET, of course, has been the standard for this matchless role in the United States for many years.  Pronounced, when he first played it, the most complete embodiment of the Prince of Denmark since the days of Edwin Booth, it has grown in humanness, understanding, imagination and technique until now it is one of the perfect things of the contemporary theatres.  No other such profound and moving exposition of the complex character of the Melancholy Dane has been presented within current memory.  Its permanency is attested by Mr. Hampden's having given it more than 600 times during the last twelve years, and whenever he reappears in the role he is greeted by overflowing audiences.



Figure


White


MANSON


T
HE SERVANT IN THE HOUSE
 is peculiarly Walter Hampden's own play, for the Christ-like Manson, who is its
central character, was inspired by and written for him.  Mr. Hampden brought the manuscript of this noble drama from England in 1907 and created the title role in the production made by Henry Miller during the following season, playing it for three years in New York and throughout the country.  It remains what it was then—one of the most profoundly moving and dramatically perfect plays ever written.  Contrasting sharply with other dramas in the star's repertoire, it tends to show the remarkable range of his versatility.



W
ALTER HAMPDEN gives 
Hamlet
 more nearly as it was written by Shakespeare than any other actor today.  Scenes are played which have been omitted from performances for so long that persons whose acquaintance with the drama is mainly through the stage versions, have forgotten that they existed.



Mr. Hampden restored these scenes because they really are necessary if the story of the play is to be consistent and coherent, and the motivation clear.




The most important scenes restored are three short ones, played by Mr. Hampden as one, immediately following the Queen's Closet scene.




As commonly played, Ophelia's mad scene immediately follows the scene in the Queen's Closet, and Hamlet does not re-appear until the graveyard scene.  What happens to Hamlet in the interim is more or less vague, it merely being known from previous remarks of the King that he has been sent into England, and from his letter to the King that he has unexpectedly returned to Denmark.



But with those brief scenes played, the spectator sees Hamlet virtually placed under arrest for killing Polonius, hears his banishment to England pronounced, and are made aware that the king has arranged to have him put to death when he arrives in that country.




Another important scene replaced is that between Hamlet and Horatio, in which the prince tells about how he discovered the plot against him and how he turned the tables upon Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and brought them to the death intended for him.



These restorations do not materially lengthen the playing time of the drama, so skilfully are they inserted into the plan of action.


Figure


Mary Dale Clarke


HAMLET