The Milwaukee Leader

LENORE ULRIC.

With something approaching certainty that David Belasco's production of Mima, with Milwaukee's Lenore Ulric in the title role, will face the public this week, interest in this prodigious production is again increased. That rehearsal periods will continue for another three weeks after the opening, once set for Nov. 19, testifies to Mr. Belasco's lavish care. It is scheduled to be the highest price dramatic attraction in New York.

All-Steel Settings.

This is the first time a play has been produced in an all-steel setting; the first time where the full stage has been occupied solely by masses of machinery. The play, adapted from Ferenc Molnar's The Red Mill, is also characterized by European critics as a mystery-miracle-morality offering, so wide is the range in plot.

Milwaukeeans have long ago heard that there will be no chance of seeing the play here; as any stage, to accommodate it would have to be rebuilt at an expense of many thousands of dollars. Belasco's theater has been dark for seven weeks while the vast, weighty mechanism, the devil-mill, which extends through the proscenium and laps over the auditorium proper is being erected.

Two Greats in This.

Miss Ulric, called "the greatest portrayer of primitives today," is said to have her greatest role, as Mr. Belasco is said to be about ready to present his greatest offering.

The scenes are laid in hell, with Rex Infernis and his retinue witnessing an experiment in corruption of an hitherto pure human soul. That the one spark of good in every human defeats the machinations of the devil is no fault of the Magister who creates Mima, the temptress, and the great mass of machinery, the product of which is pitted against goodness and truth.

Mima a Mannikin.

Mima, the mannikin, is the result of many years of experiment with the devil-mill. Her make-up includes some of the virus from the souls of noted beauties throughout the ages.

The climax arrives when Mima, who has seduced Janos, is forgiven instead of killed by him. Instantly hell is thrown into a tumult. The machine whirrs and develops evil currents in vain.

The whole thing is proved in the end to be a dream, "which is all right if you like that kind of endings. Probably any ending would be a relief, however, after such a tumultuous play," according to one New York critic.