25 Profess01
EXTRAOT FROM
ACTON GAZETTE,
272, High Street, Acton, W.3.
24 JuL 1936
Date —
Phenix Theatre
The transference of the realistic
Austrian medical play. Professor
Bernhardi.“ to the Phenix Theatre.
Charing Cross-road, where it has been
welcomed by large audiences, will
bring a larger public under its dramatie
and histrionic spell.
The refusal of a Jewish doctor,
based solely on his conception of duty,
to allow a priest to worry a dying
patient, seems a trivial incident to
English people, especially as the
patient promptly dies on hearing from
an incautious nurse that the priest is
coming; but it sets in motion a curious
conflict of rival fanaticisms—pro and
anti-clerical, pro and anti-semitic—
and political chicanery, self-secking and
double-dealing over appointments to
the hospital over which the Jew pre¬
sides following his forced resignation.
Throughout all the turmoil Bern¬
hardi is the only character remaining
rigidly true to principle, though
the priest admits privately that
the Jew was right as a doctor,
fand the nurse, on whose evidence
he
was
condemned, withdraws
her allegations. The central episode
of the play is the stormy hospital
board meeting, the conflicting passions
of which, while Bernhardi keeps cool.
is wonderfully enacted by a clever
group of actors.
Abraham Sofaer is superb in the
title-role, and he is well supported by
competent company thoroughly
versed in character impersonation.
S
EXTRACT FROM
Kdre
4.7.56
The new translation and adaptation
t
Schnitzler’s" Professor Bern¬
hardi“' is a very meritorious piece of
work. As acted at the Pheenix
Theatre, it impresses one by reason
of the skill with which arguments
are presented and characters are
drawn. I think still that the initial
situation is dramatically a false
situation, and I cannot really under¬
stand the priest’s concession during
his charitable visit to the Professor.
But Abraham Sofaer and Bernard
Merefield as the Professor and the
Priest play their parts so well that
sympathies are equally divided. One
has acted on the natural plane; one
on the supernatural plane; and both
have had their principles exploited
by people of ill-will.
The text
annoyed me, but the performed playv
is deeply interesting as a play. 1
cannot be dismissed lightly.
F T Ar
box 31/5
en
ERES PROM
Kertel Jnce
Date 24 JII 1938
NA PLAY WORTH SEEING.,
· PROFESSOR BERNHARDI.“
If you are thinking of an evening-out in
town and you want to see a play that you
will reinember for a long, long while, go
Jand seo“ Professor Bernhardi,' the new
Iplay by Arthur Schnitzler, ow playing at
ithe Phoenix Theatre.
It won't make you laugh very much, but
it will make you think. From the time you
enter the theatre until you leave, your
attention will be completely gripped by this
very vital play.
And, for good measure, you will enjoy
soie of the season’s finest acting.
Professor Bernhardi is a Jewish doctor,
head of a large private hospital in Austria.
He refuses to let a Catholic priest admini¬
ster the last sacrament to a dying girl, since
the girl is blissfully ignorant of the fact
that death is rapidly approaching.
Because Bernhardi is a Jew, the incident
is cagerly seized on by jealous fellow
doctors, is perverted out of all semblance
to the truth, and Bernhardi is finally sent
to prison.
The topicality of the theme alone invests
ithe play with importance.
But such is the character of the acting,
that you are conscious only of the human
drama that is unfolding before you. It is
not until later that the broader aspects of
ithe conflict strike home.
As the Jewish doctor, Abraham Sofaer
plays with restraint and suppleness, with
not a single false note throughout his long
role.
Ronald Adams, in the role of a wily poli¬
stician, is brilliant, in % difficult role wnich
mnighit so easily be burlesqued.
The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent.
The play is produced by Ronald Adams,
sho directed“ Ten Minute Alibi“ and
** The Dominant Sex;“ it is, naturally, a
model of smoothiness
Altogether, a play to put on your“ must'
list
EXTRAOT FROM
ACTON GAZETTE,
272, High Street, Acton, W.3.
24 JuL 1936
Date —
Phenix Theatre
The transference of the realistic
Austrian medical play. Professor
Bernhardi.“ to the Phenix Theatre.
Charing Cross-road, where it has been
welcomed by large audiences, will
bring a larger public under its dramatie
and histrionic spell.
The refusal of a Jewish doctor,
based solely on his conception of duty,
to allow a priest to worry a dying
patient, seems a trivial incident to
English people, especially as the
patient promptly dies on hearing from
an incautious nurse that the priest is
coming; but it sets in motion a curious
conflict of rival fanaticisms—pro and
anti-clerical, pro and anti-semitic—
and political chicanery, self-secking and
double-dealing over appointments to
the hospital over which the Jew pre¬
sides following his forced resignation.
Throughout all the turmoil Bern¬
hardi is the only character remaining
rigidly true to principle, though
the priest admits privately that
the Jew was right as a doctor,
fand the nurse, on whose evidence
he
was
condemned, withdraws
her allegations. The central episode
of the play is the stormy hospital
board meeting, the conflicting passions
of which, while Bernhardi keeps cool.
is wonderfully enacted by a clever
group of actors.
Abraham Sofaer is superb in the
title-role, and he is well supported by
competent company thoroughly
versed in character impersonation.
S
EXTRACT FROM
Kdre
4.7.56
The new translation and adaptation
t
Schnitzler’s" Professor Bern¬
hardi“' is a very meritorious piece of
work. As acted at the Pheenix
Theatre, it impresses one by reason
of the skill with which arguments
are presented and characters are
drawn. I think still that the initial
situation is dramatically a false
situation, and I cannot really under¬
stand the priest’s concession during
his charitable visit to the Professor.
But Abraham Sofaer and Bernard
Merefield as the Professor and the
Priest play their parts so well that
sympathies are equally divided. One
has acted on the natural plane; one
on the supernatural plane; and both
have had their principles exploited
by people of ill-will.
The text
annoyed me, but the performed playv
is deeply interesting as a play. 1
cannot be dismissed lightly.
F T Ar
box 31/5
en
ERES PROM
Kertel Jnce
Date 24 JII 1938
NA PLAY WORTH SEEING.,
· PROFESSOR BERNHARDI.“
If you are thinking of an evening-out in
town and you want to see a play that you
will reinember for a long, long while, go
Jand seo“ Professor Bernhardi,' the new
Iplay by Arthur Schnitzler, ow playing at
ithe Phoenix Theatre.
It won't make you laugh very much, but
it will make you think. From the time you
enter the theatre until you leave, your
attention will be completely gripped by this
very vital play.
And, for good measure, you will enjoy
soie of the season’s finest acting.
Professor Bernhardi is a Jewish doctor,
head of a large private hospital in Austria.
He refuses to let a Catholic priest admini¬
ster the last sacrament to a dying girl, since
the girl is blissfully ignorant of the fact
that death is rapidly approaching.
Because Bernhardi is a Jew, the incident
is cagerly seized on by jealous fellow
doctors, is perverted out of all semblance
to the truth, and Bernhardi is finally sent
to prison.
The topicality of the theme alone invests
ithe play with importance.
But such is the character of the acting,
that you are conscious only of the human
drama that is unfolding before you. It is
not until later that the broader aspects of
ithe conflict strike home.
As the Jewish doctor, Abraham Sofaer
plays with restraint and suppleness, with
not a single false note throughout his long
role.
Ronald Adams, in the role of a wily poli¬
stician, is brilliant, in % difficult role wnich
mnighit so easily be burlesqued.
The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent.
The play is produced by Ronald Adams,
sho directed“ Ten Minute Alibi“ and
** The Dominant Sex;“ it is, naturally, a
model of smoothiness
Altogether, a play to put on your“ must'
list