"THE BLUE BIRD."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 688, 13 December 1909, Page 7

"THE BLUE BIRD."

- ■■. '• ; -: : . ■.■■ ——»——■••'■.'■ 1.-. .;' SUCCESS OF MABTEfMNCK'S. PLAY., (By Telejraph—Pre«« Association—Copyright.! : : , London, December 10. Maeterlinck's play, "The -Uhie, Bird," prt duced at the Hayraarket Theatre, proved on of tile most remarkable dramatic and pictork successes of the .present generation. ■ ■ ■ /'■ '■• •■ ; ' ■ ■ ■ ■■''■''- : ' • '''■'■ A FRENCH PETER PAN. In his "fairy :play in five acts" Jlaeterlihc introduces; a real fairy—the .Fairy" licrylum But (says an' American: paper) he introduce something of far greater importance; He ir vests Bread and Water nnd Sugar and Ligli and Trees and Bogs, and Cats with souls They all speak to us, if only' we understan their language: The burden of it all is clearl pantheistic. .Of course ;.thore are other mear ings and undcr-iueanihgs, and secondary inter tions. Tl|p Blue Bird is happiness, or perhap knowledge. : '". '■.-. .. .'• . . ■.; ~ The; first act takes us to the interior of woodcutter's cottage on Christmas night. Th two' children, • Tyltyl and . Mytyli are' garin yearningly, at. the .Christmas tree across th street. Suddenly an old woman—a humphocke fairy—enters and asks: .''Have : you the: gros that, singe or the bird that .is blue?" Aftc Borne strange and eerie talk', Tyltyl turns th diamond in tho. Fairy's hat, and : a wonderrti change, comes over everything. .The cottag becomes a, palace, the 'Fairy; a princess. Th clp'ckreleases the honrs, and the souls of Lighi Fire, Water, Bread,. Sugar, the Dog, and th Cat, are awakened,/and begin a voluble an oxcitod' conversation. All tho: Animnls ran Things start out.with the Fairy and childrei in the soarch for the Blue. Bird. In the Lan of 'the: .children .aie'- welcomed- h their, grandparents, and their dead , , bvothei and sisters. The adventures' .continue throug the Palace of the Night,,"and the. cavern ■ o Sicknesses. In: tlio.Forest,, the Trees moke , compact with the Beasts,,to destroy tho Chile ren, but they fail.'.' ; ~■ The^. strangest,and.most moving part of th play is the nnimated scone, in, the Kingdoi of ■ the Future, where, the', unborn babiesi livi Timo is' the':master, ■■ who dispatches: the. chile ron. The Blue' Bird is,filially' discovered, nn the children como back homo. Then all th things and. creatures return , ■■to"their" forhie placos, .- ■_';.-•. .... v .■•..■■ ■ .■•■••■..■, ■..,