25. Professer Bernhandi
EXTRACP rne..
Shau Mtaise
AUG 1938
PROFESSOR BERNHARDI (Phocnix).
Plaz in ihree acts. by Artbur Schnitaler. Action of tbe play
in Vienna. Four ehanger of scene. 20 Men, 1 woman.
One can best describe this play by stating that had Galsworthy
been educated at Heidelberg instend of at an English Public School,
he would have written just such a play. That is to say, it deals
with urgent conflicts of loyalties and ideals, but instead of appealing
tothe audience's latent humanitarianism, it presents its theme in a
fury of dialectic, which is as precisely marshalled as a scholarly
debate among professors. It docs not therefore follow that this is
an arid essay in argument and counter-argument. Far from it. This
is a play for the adult intelligence, for the theatre-goer who is not
afraid to bring his brains with him when he takes an evening out.
It is, morcover, dramatic, exciting and moving.
The theme is once more that of the Jew in conflict with the com¬
munity. (Of all topics in these days the most topical.) Professor
Bernhardi, director of a Viennese hospital, refuses to allow a Catholic
priest to administer the last rites to a dying patient, for the very
good reason that the patient is happy, and entirely unaware that
she is dying. From the consequences of what is to him a logical
and humanitarian action, the drama of the play is most ingeniously
developed. Hatred of the Jew, personal ambition, conflicts of belict,
political necessity —all these developments the author has skil¬
fully presented in what rapidly becomes a cunse refehre. and results
in à prison sentence for the Professor. The author makes no special
pleading for one attitude rather than another.
A play for amateurs to act? It is hardly likely, since there is
the tiniest part for one woman only, and the play is the concern
of twenty men. (This results, incidentally, in a refreshing rongh¬
ne# in the play’s vigour. Oue playgoer at least welomed this free¬
dom from petticcat influence!) But all playgoers should see this
vitally dispassionate play. Abraham Sofaer is Professor Bernhardi
as the author must have scen him. Ronald Adam pontificates as
a politician, with an air which is wickedly that of all Ministers who
unseal their lips to their private secretaries only; and the large cast
is competent fronk start to finish. Producers who feel that they still
have a little to learn might see Heinrich Schnitzler’s production if
only for the way he has handled a board-room meeting. From this
scene (as throughout) he has created twice as much drama as even
the author put into it.
W.R.B.
RACT
1
1
Professor Bernhardi by Arthur Schnitzler has beei
wansferred from the Embassy, Swiss Cottage, to the Phenixt.
Theatre, Charing Cross Road. This is onc of the most serions
plays the clever playwright Schnitzler wrote. Most of bis
plays have a light ironic tang, but this is a serious handling
of a problem of behaviour. A clever Jewish physician, impelled
by his conscience as a medical man prevents a priest from
going to the bedside of a dring girl. The play develops on
the conflict between the claims of expediency and the impulse
of the professor to act upon the truth as he secs it. The play
is particularly topical now because of the Anti-Jewish mania
that is afllicting a considerable part ofthe European population;
but really the play revolves round a deeper problem than anti¬
semitism and its consequences. This issue becomes simply the
vehicle for a dramatic presentation of the age-long problem
of the nature of truth and our obligations of loyalty to it.
Mr. Abraham Sofaer plays Professor Bernhardi. T have a very'
high admiration for Mr. Sofaer’s powers as an actor, and bis
easy capacity for conveying nobility is well suited to this play.
But the cast as a wholc is of particularly fine quality; one has
a feeling of inevitability with regard to the casting that says
much for the presentation of the play.
box 31/5
EXTRAOT FROM
THEATRE WORLD,
Dorset Buildings, Salisbury Square, E.C.4
SEAUG 1956
Date
PHGNIX
Juli) 14#h
# PROFESSOR
9
BERNHARDI
A Play in Three Acts. By Arthur
Schmtzler. English version by Louis
Borell and Ronald Adam. Produced by
Heinrich Schnitzler.
Cast includes: Abraham Sofaer, Ronald
Adam, Bernard Merefield, Earle Grey, John
Garside, Charles Maunsell, Alan Wheatley,
Noel Howlett, Leonard Sachs, Arthur
Seaton, Don Gemmell, Anne Cotton.
r needed a bold man to transfer
Schnitzleplav from Swiss
Cottage to the West End, but
Ronald Adam, who has done such
fine work at the Embassy Theatre,
has always had the courage of his
convictions. It is upto serious play¬
geers to ensure that the venture dees
not go unsupported.
The secker after light entertain¬
ment may find this play rather heavy
going. As an essay in dialectics it is
a meritorious piece of writing, con¬
taining some fine passages of drama¬
tic conflict.
Vienna, too often the theatrical
scene of spurious gaiety and amorous
dalliance, is here the background of
political intrigue and racial ani¬
mosity. Bernhardi, director of the
Elizabeth Institute, refuses to allow
a priest to administer extreme
unction to a woman patient who is
ignorant of approaching death. His
attitude, if ill-advised, is prompted
by humanitarian motives, but the
incident, distorted by rumour and
exaggerated by those with personal
and political axes to grind, leads to
a question in Parliament and ulti¬
mately to Bernhardi’s trial and
imprisonment. Treating the matter
with dignity and contempt, and
refusing to submit to the laws of
expedience, he is made the scapegoat
of his enemies.
The scene between Bernhardi and
the politician who promises his
support and then goes back on his
word is brilliantly written, and acted
with subtle irony by Abraham
Sofaer and Ronald Adam. Equally
good, if somewhat protracted, is the
scene whiere the priest calls on
Bernhardi after the trial at which he
has given evidence. The committee
meeting atthe Institute, where
Bernhardi’s resignation is demanded,
gives rise to a dramatic clash of
character between the professor’s
partisans and opponents.
Abraham Sofaer dominates the
play with his suave, forceful study of
Bernhardi. Ronald Adam’s poli¬
tician is a masterpiece of ironical
observation. Bernard Merefield as
Father Reder; Earle Grey as Bern¬
hardi’s implacable foc, Ebenwald,
and Alan Wheatley as the bland
Conncillor Winkler give outstanding
performances.
D. C. F.
EXTRACP rne..
Shau Mtaise
AUG 1938
PROFESSOR BERNHARDI (Phocnix).
Plaz in ihree acts. by Artbur Schnitaler. Action of tbe play
in Vienna. Four ehanger of scene. 20 Men, 1 woman.
One can best describe this play by stating that had Galsworthy
been educated at Heidelberg instend of at an English Public School,
he would have written just such a play. That is to say, it deals
with urgent conflicts of loyalties and ideals, but instead of appealing
tothe audience's latent humanitarianism, it presents its theme in a
fury of dialectic, which is as precisely marshalled as a scholarly
debate among professors. It docs not therefore follow that this is
an arid essay in argument and counter-argument. Far from it. This
is a play for the adult intelligence, for the theatre-goer who is not
afraid to bring his brains with him when he takes an evening out.
It is, morcover, dramatic, exciting and moving.
The theme is once more that of the Jew in conflict with the com¬
munity. (Of all topics in these days the most topical.) Professor
Bernhardi, director of a Viennese hospital, refuses to allow a Catholic
priest to administer the last rites to a dying patient, for the very
good reason that the patient is happy, and entirely unaware that
she is dying. From the consequences of what is to him a logical
and humanitarian action, the drama of the play is most ingeniously
developed. Hatred of the Jew, personal ambition, conflicts of belict,
political necessity —all these developments the author has skil¬
fully presented in what rapidly becomes a cunse refehre. and results
in à prison sentence for the Professor. The author makes no special
pleading for one attitude rather than another.
A play for amateurs to act? It is hardly likely, since there is
the tiniest part for one woman only, and the play is the concern
of twenty men. (This results, incidentally, in a refreshing rongh¬
ne# in the play’s vigour. Oue playgoer at least welomed this free¬
dom from petticcat influence!) But all playgoers should see this
vitally dispassionate play. Abraham Sofaer is Professor Bernhardi
as the author must have scen him. Ronald Adam pontificates as
a politician, with an air which is wickedly that of all Ministers who
unseal their lips to their private secretaries only; and the large cast
is competent fronk start to finish. Producers who feel that they still
have a little to learn might see Heinrich Schnitzler’s production if
only for the way he has handled a board-room meeting. From this
scene (as throughout) he has created twice as much drama as even
the author put into it.
W.R.B.
RACT
1
1
Professor Bernhardi by Arthur Schnitzler has beei
wansferred from the Embassy, Swiss Cottage, to the Phenixt.
Theatre, Charing Cross Road. This is onc of the most serions
plays the clever playwright Schnitzler wrote. Most of bis
plays have a light ironic tang, but this is a serious handling
of a problem of behaviour. A clever Jewish physician, impelled
by his conscience as a medical man prevents a priest from
going to the bedside of a dring girl. The play develops on
the conflict between the claims of expediency and the impulse
of the professor to act upon the truth as he secs it. The play
is particularly topical now because of the Anti-Jewish mania
that is afllicting a considerable part ofthe European population;
but really the play revolves round a deeper problem than anti¬
semitism and its consequences. This issue becomes simply the
vehicle for a dramatic presentation of the age-long problem
of the nature of truth and our obligations of loyalty to it.
Mr. Abraham Sofaer plays Professor Bernhardi. T have a very'
high admiration for Mr. Sofaer’s powers as an actor, and bis
easy capacity for conveying nobility is well suited to this play.
But the cast as a wholc is of particularly fine quality; one has
a feeling of inevitability with regard to the casting that says
much for the presentation of the play.
box 31/5
EXTRAOT FROM
THEATRE WORLD,
Dorset Buildings, Salisbury Square, E.C.4
SEAUG 1956
Date
PHGNIX
Juli) 14#h
# PROFESSOR
9
BERNHARDI
A Play in Three Acts. By Arthur
Schmtzler. English version by Louis
Borell and Ronald Adam. Produced by
Heinrich Schnitzler.
Cast includes: Abraham Sofaer, Ronald
Adam, Bernard Merefield, Earle Grey, John
Garside, Charles Maunsell, Alan Wheatley,
Noel Howlett, Leonard Sachs, Arthur
Seaton, Don Gemmell, Anne Cotton.
r needed a bold man to transfer
Schnitzleplav from Swiss
Cottage to the West End, but
Ronald Adam, who has done such
fine work at the Embassy Theatre,
has always had the courage of his
convictions. It is upto serious play¬
geers to ensure that the venture dees
not go unsupported.
The secker after light entertain¬
ment may find this play rather heavy
going. As an essay in dialectics it is
a meritorious piece of writing, con¬
taining some fine passages of drama¬
tic conflict.
Vienna, too often the theatrical
scene of spurious gaiety and amorous
dalliance, is here the background of
political intrigue and racial ani¬
mosity. Bernhardi, director of the
Elizabeth Institute, refuses to allow
a priest to administer extreme
unction to a woman patient who is
ignorant of approaching death. His
attitude, if ill-advised, is prompted
by humanitarian motives, but the
incident, distorted by rumour and
exaggerated by those with personal
and political axes to grind, leads to
a question in Parliament and ulti¬
mately to Bernhardi’s trial and
imprisonment. Treating the matter
with dignity and contempt, and
refusing to submit to the laws of
expedience, he is made the scapegoat
of his enemies.
The scene between Bernhardi and
the politician who promises his
support and then goes back on his
word is brilliantly written, and acted
with subtle irony by Abraham
Sofaer and Ronald Adam. Equally
good, if somewhat protracted, is the
scene whiere the priest calls on
Bernhardi after the trial at which he
has given evidence. The committee
meeting atthe Institute, where
Bernhardi’s resignation is demanded,
gives rise to a dramatic clash of
character between the professor’s
partisans and opponents.
Abraham Sofaer dominates the
play with his suave, forceful study of
Bernhardi. Ronald Adam’s poli¬
tician is a masterpiece of ironical
observation. Bernard Merefield as
Father Reder; Earle Grey as Bern¬
hardi’s implacable foc, Ebenwald,
and Alan Wheatley as the bland
Conncillor Winkler give outstanding
performances.
D. C. F.