Faksimile

Text

25. Professer Bernhandi

EXTRACT FROM
umd and Ede
20 MNr 1936
PLAY GUIDE
WHATS NEW
Professor Bernhardi. Arthur Schnitzler. (Embassy.) Eng“
lisk version by Louis Borell and Ronald Adam. This play
achieves dramatic unity not so much through the rounding
off of its action as by means of a cumulative pattern of
argument Which springs from each new occurrence. The
main source of all that follows is Professor Bernhardi’s
refusal as a doctor to allow a priest to visit a dying girl
who is ignorant of her hopeless condition. This act, set
in a limited context of rational common sense, generates
far-reaching repercussions of political, diplomatic and
religions significance. These give rise to the various argu¬
ments which form the substance of the play, and the atten¬
tion of the audience is admirably held from start to finish.
The large cast is, with one minor exception, male. The
characterizations are on the whole very good, and if, in
an effort to differentiate them, overplaying occurs, it is
almost forgivable. Abraham Sofaer gives an unassuming
but intensely live performance as Bernhardi and Ronald
Adams adroitly gathers up the loose threads of the argu¬
ment into the suave personality of the politician. The
satire is weighed somewhat against clericalism in favour
of Jewish rationalism, but there is no attempt to avoid
criticising the more unpleasant manifestations of the latter.
HXTRAOT FROM
NEW STATESMAN,
10, Great Turnstile, W.C.
2 0 JUll 1935
Date —
* Professor Bernhardi,? at the Embassy
This is a play of idcas but not a piece äthese. The conflict arises
from an incident in a hospital, wherc a Jewish doctor refuses to
allow a priest to disturb the serenity of a dying girl by
calling her to repentance. But the real issuc is something subtler
than the opposing dutics of doctor and of priest—it is the conflict
between Mcans and lnds. The priest honestly, the politician
more cynically, sacrifice individual truth tothe Higher Truth or
ihe Greater Usefulness. Professor Bernharchi, the hero, is more
honourable, if you like, or more short-sighted; and sacrifices his
cireer and his hospital to a principle. For him a good end cannot
justify bad means. The issuc is dangerously subtie for thie stage,
and Schnitzler has been careful not to coarsen it. The result is a
fascinating play, enormously superior to cur nightly fare, but
rather beyond the apprehension of the usual playgoer. But it is
cotinnously interesting, mnost skilfully contrived, and avoids
all ihe usual faults of ihe play of idcas. It has been admirably
produced by Herr Heinrich Schnitzler, and is on the whole
exzellently acted. Mr. Abraham Sofaer gives a delicate and very
impressive performance, Mr. John Garside, Mr. Ronald Adam,
Mr. Noel Howlett and Mr. Peter Ashmorc arc all remarkable.
The anti-scmitism which is a part of the subject gives Proessor
Bernharch interest, but we very strongly recommend the play
for its extraordinarily successful application of dramatie tecinique
to ideas which arc not simple.
Dat¬
box 31/5
EXTRACT FROM
STAR,
19, Bouverie Street, E.C.4.
20 Jiik 1935
HIT OF THE WEEK
N Schnitzler’s“ Professor Bern¬
1
Selected By
Chardiswatthe-Embassy, the only
prodüction of the past week, Abraham
A. E. WILSON soiaer has made a notable success in
the name part, that of a Jewish
Dramatic Critic Of The Star doctor who suffers for his principles.
The part suits him admirably; he
has the presence and the right digni¬
fied bearing for it. He is more at
home in elderly than in juvenile parts.
He has a rich and sonorous voice—
it is one of the most beautiful and
flexible voices among the younger
actors. I remember how finely it ex¬
pressed the moving eloquence of the
Rabbi in Miracle at Verdun' at this
same theatre.
He has often employed it in Shake¬
speare. He spent a season at the Old
Vic, where he was equally good as
Claudius in“ Hamlet' and as Othello.
Born nearly 40 years ago in
Rangoon, Burma, he was once a
schoolmaster there and in London.
S
He took to the stage in 1921, walk¬
7##
ing-on in rhe Merchant of Venice'
in Charles A. Doran'’s company. Later
he toured with Alexander Marsh and
with Harold V. Neilson’s company, and
in
four years played nearly a
hundred Shakespearean parts.
His first appearance in London was
in Gloriana at the Little in Decem¬
1
ber, 1925. He has done a good deal
ABRAHAM SOFAER
of film work.
Sesessessessesessese
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