"SALVATION NELL" REVIEWED

Since its first production in Providence on November 12, "Salvation Nell," the play by E. B. Sheldon '08 in which Mrs. Fiske is acting, has been the subject of much favorable comment in the press. It is practically the unanimous verdict of the critics that Mr. Sheldon has produced a work of great power.

The New York Evening Sun accords the author high praise. The criticism reads in part as follows:

"Edward Sheldon, the author of 'Salvation Nell,' in which Mrs. Fiske made her appearance at the Hackett Theatre, is only 23 years old. Ten years hence, when he has become a still more successful and well-seasoned playwright, he will probably stand abashed at the remembrance of all he did and dared in his maiden effort. For however much traditions may be shocked and polite conventionalities shattered, the fact must go on record that this boy from Harvard, backed only by the courage of his own convictions, and with Mrs. Fiske as both actress and stage manageress standing as a tower of strength behind him, has given New York the most daring play that this town has ever seen.

"To say that 'Salvation Nell' created a sensation is putting the situation mildly. Playgoers may take our word for it, that they may go to the Hackett prepared to see not only one of the most wonderful portrayals that Mrs. Fiske has ever given but they will witness a production which is not alone extraordinary but unique. There will be moments in the first act when they will gasp at the cold-blooded, sheer brutality of the dialogues and situations; there will be times when their interest will sag, owing to the young author's too great love of mere characteristic detail; then again, they will be thrilled by the strength of many of the scenes, for with all of his youthful crudities on his head, this lad has in his play some splendid passages of tense and virile drama-and above all the work of Mrs. Fiske as the converted scrubwoman and of Holbrook Blinn as her brutal convict lover will lay them under one of those spells which are found in the theatre nowadays only once in a blue moon.

"It was, in a word, a very remarkable production of a very unusual play. Its few faults are easily remedied; the prayer at the climax of the second act is not effective. The curtain should fall on Nell's line to her child: 'Pray as you have never prayed before.' The opening of the third act drags too much with street detail, and the entrance of Myrtle gives this scene its one false note. But these are tiny specks upon a wonderfully effective stage sun. Mrs. Fiske's production as well as her performance at the Hackett will go down into theatrical history as a big event."

Transcript's Criticism of Play.

The Transcript criticises the play as follows:

"Mr. Sheldon has been well trained in the technical understanding and resource that can be taught-that are taught, indeed, at Harvard-and he has profited by his training. Admirable and surprising in the first act is his willingness to suggest his characters as they come and go, and not particularize in minute exposition. He is willing even that they disclose themselves and imply their own backgrounds. Oftener, however, the higher technique that would have saved him from some of his confusions and changes of key, for example, and that each man must learn for himself in his chosen profession, evades him, and naturally enough. Then his theatrical instinct that carries character, episode and feeling across the footlights, and his command of emotion save him. The best of the playwrights in their twenties see and feel, much more than they design and elaborate. Most of their characters are bound to be sketches, as Mr. Sheldon's in the main are. The actors and the stage manager, when they are of such mettle as Mrs. Fiske and her company, do the rest."