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THE AMERICAN-SC AN DIN A VI AN REVIEW 
ized her play as Nora could be found in her impersonation of them all. 
A few years later, in 1885, she made a living figure of little Hed- 
vig with the weak eyes in A. TVild Duck. On the German stage this 
part is usually made “sweet,” almost ad nauseam. Fru Hennings s 
interpretation was a complete masterpiece of mental and physical j 
characterization. In the words of this precocious child she expressed 
her own deepest feelings, her richest experience. Hedvig s purity of 
heart, her perfect innocence amid all the depravity surrounding her, 
and her almost pathetic helplessness cut one to the quick. The means 
used by Fru Hennings to gain her ends were very simple, but genuine 
and therefore effective. These two so different figures, Nora, the 
spoiled daughter of the middle classes whom a painful experience 
develops into a mature woman, and the little innocent child who in 
her eagerness to bring joy to her home sacrifices herself, brought Fru 
Hennings fame and glory throughout. When as a guest she played 
on the Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish boards, she was received and 
honored as the greatest actress of the day. In 1891 the energy of 
her playing and her clear enunciation as Fru Tesman in Hedda Gab- 
ler duped many, but she failed to give the true keynote of this part. 
The demoniacal and mysterious elements so characteristic of Mine. 
Duse’s interpretation were lacking. Here the Italian actress sur¬ 
passed the Northern. In 1898 Fru Hennings flew like a bird into the 
study of The Master Builder, but her 
Hilde Wangel conquered the master 
builder more by virtue of her dare-devil 
cleverness than by the flaming egoism 
of youth which was the dominating mo¬ 
tive in Fru Johanne Dybwad’s never- 
to-be-forgotten interpretation of that 
part on the stage of the National Thea¬ 
tre in Christiania. Two years later, 
1895, Fru Hennings played Asta All- 
mers in Little Eyolf. In this part she 
concentrated all her efforts in a single 
scene, the close of Act II, in which Asta 
confesses to Allmers that she is not his 
sister and gives him pond-lilies. In 
1899, Ellida Wangel in The Lady from 
the Sea was added to her other Ibsen 
parts. This figure is like a bird from 
the cliffs, lost in an inlet and drooping 
with desire for the sea. Fru Hennings’s 
expression as she played that role re¬ 
minded one of the look in the eyes of a 
wounded seal, but the deepest passion 
Bktty Hexxings as Fru Alving in 
“Ghosts” 
