18. Der einsane Neg
∆
Variety
New York NY
Feb 25 1931
THE LONELY WAY
Baltimore, Feb. 20.
Tragl-comedy in flve acts by Arthur
Schnitaler-acting version by Philip Moeller,
Drected by Moeller. Settings and cos¬
tumes hy Lee Simonson. Produced by the
Theatre Guild, Inc., and premiered at
Ford’s, February 16.
Johanna Wegrat. Johanna Roos
Felix Wegrat Walter Cor
Stephen von Sala Ralph Roeder
Dr. Franz Reumann Joseph Macaulay
Gabrielle Wegrat Helen Carew
Professor Wegrat. Charles Francis
Julian Fichtner. Glenn Anders
Irene Herms. Vlolet Kemble Cooper
Servant at Fichtner’s Herbert Rotner
Servant at von Sala's Bretaigne Windust
The entr’act musie program for
this presentation was made un of
waltz melodies by von Suppe, Wald¬
teufel and Johann Strauss. The
hopes they kindled in a large and
expectant audiencewere quickly
dashed, fo. is play, long hailed
las the major dramatic opus of the
Herr Professor Doctor Arthur
Schnitzler, is in both mood and
method more akin to the. Copen¬
hagen of Henrik lbsen than the Vi¬
enna of Anatol, thé prose “Idylis,“
and the tragic heroine of“ Liebe¬
lel.“ Boll that down and it means
that the show is not theie.
As a museum piece for the stu¬
dent of early 20th century drama
the production of“ The Lonely Way“
As an entertainment
Justifled.
for the general playgoing public, tlie
current presentation in the great
open spaces of a provincial theatre
is, to put it bluntly, a bore.
vague and loose-jointed drama,
constructed onthe obsolete hve¬
Det pattern, it, unlike Turgeniev’s
Month in the, Country,“ lacks a
18
compelling cheracterlzation.
a drama of theme father than a
play of a personality. That theme
is the Joneliness of those who elect
Journey
for seifish rrasons to
through life fre. of domestie fetters.
Neither Fichtner nor von Sala,
Schnitzler’s two solo travelers, suc¬
ceeds in dominating the voluminons!
dialog, while the. ’eminine charne¬
ters are lightly sketched and wholly
secondary.
Nor does the production bring out
the best in the play. Moeller has
used an inderior for the first and
fifth acts instead of the garden set
called for in the Bjorkman trans¬
lation, ht hig Pacting version'
seems% ädhere rather closely to
#the original text. The casting, with
the cxception of Johanna Roos, is
adequate rather than distinguished.
Miss Roos, in the rather indistinet
role of an adolescent disturbed by
Freudian fires and finally saerlficed
on the altar of unrequited love,
turns in a portrayal characterized
by poetic restraint.
The rather casual plot concerns
the devastation wrecked on the
stuffy domleile of a Viennese pro¬
fessor by two male acquaintances.
The more important of these, Julian
Fichter, is the father of the son of
the Wegrat household by the pro¬
fessor’s wife. Learning of his pa¬
ternity, the son turns his back on
Fichtner. IIis half-sister, in the
throes of a hopeless infatuation for
ethe widower, von Sala, drowns her¬
self in his garden pool. Fichtner
and von Sala, who have valued free¬
dom above everything else, Jomvey
onward to the inevitable tomb,
treading the lonely way.
rthe subseribers, then
Tall.
storchouse.
box 23/5
C
Tines
deu fork NT
Pan
1921
The Gulld is said to have 840,000
tied up in the physical production
and costumes of the postponed
Much Ado About Nothing,“ which
reached the dress rehearsal stage
before it was called off. To this
accretion there will be added the
settings of Arthur Schnitzler’s The
Lonely Way,“ which closed in Wash¬
ington last night. What with
the Anatol' revival and now with
The Lonely Way,“the Viennese
author has not had a highly success¬
ful season in the American theatre.
But, when you come right down to
it, few have.