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“FIRST LEQON”TRIUMPHAL PLAYm *■ ■■ ■ ■ALL MALE CAST SCORES DISTINCTIVE SUCCESS IN FAR-1 iGO PERFORMANCE.Tloncoiweca]JaHPcala1voBy STANLEY E. COWAN Holding their audience with adramatic tenseness despite the difficulties of inadequate, improvised scenery, the all-male cast of “The First Legion.’’ third offering of the Fargo Playgoers League, scored a distinctive triumph in the Central high school auditorium last evening.Delayed an hour before the opening curtain in the hopes the scenery, costumes and other properties, stalled in a drift near Woiverton, would arrive, the company overcame discouraging obstacles tobring the finest piece of actingwhich it has been pleasure of local theatergoers to see in many years.The story concerned the members of the Jesuit Society of Jesus at St. Gregory's Novitiate, and the 11 priests who made up the cast won individual acclaim. The life, doubtsand vicissitudes of these men who had renounced the world provided a gripping plot and vivid dramatic j HI scenes. Seeing themselves as the j r “First Legion’’ of God’s army, the 1 priests are assailed by the eternal argument between worldly viewsand the convictions of the men ofGod. Whether the healing of one of their own brothers, who, a cripple, arose from his bed to walk, was a miracle, was a question whichthrew the society into a turmoil, buta repetition of the miracle in the case of a ycung boy convinced thedoubters.Cast as the father rector, William Dorbin was the outstanding performer, lending himself wholeheartedly to a dramatic effort. Asfor the remainder of the troupe it would be a difficult task to name one whose ability registered greater than the others, each enacting his role inimitably.The remaining cast included Philip Coolidge, C. Russell Sage,Philip Rothe, Ainsworth Arnold,Earl McDonald, Alan Handley, Frank Bibney, Nat Burns, William Robertson and Robert Mayors. In minor roles, cast as novices of thesociety, were John O’Day, Pat Cal-linan. Bob Carvell, Tom Ray, Arthur Rose and Richard Murphy.The casting, as to type, was in itself flawless. Each of the characters was well placed. Had the company been provided with its familiar surroundings of scenery and their own costumes, instead of theseborrowed from a local church, the setting would have been considerably improved, but scarcely the acting.The presrntation of such plays as these could net help to attract ever-increasing crowds.coPv|gievdeeaccpiNiteniaratwideTlinPtHthh£sibsbeNthaltibecithathin
Newspaper Details
Moorhead Daily News
Moorhead, Minnesota, US
Thu, Mar 12, 1936
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Patricia S.
GB 27 Jul 2019
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Moorhead Daily News
