The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-24
ESHIEEFF'S HORRORS SHOWN
REALISTIC DRAMA BY ACTORS
EXILED FROM RUSSIA.

pI,,ed In Russian. Vet 80 Wildly POr-
trAyed That the Final Scenes Left
An American Audience Weeping
4 study Of Jewish HoDelossness.
ANY hutter the Orleneh company Of ST..
Petersburg actors may have felt when they
arneared yesterday afternoon for the first
time before an American audience At the
Herald Square Theatre must have been
wholly dlspelled at the end Of the first act
Al the last curtain the enthusiasm OF the
a idience ran 40 high that the players looked
positively beWildered with 10y And yet
!, was in Russian that they gave Eugene
Tcn iko1's drama THE Chosen People
production Of which was forbidden in
Russia.
Tchirikoff, who Is an orthodox Russian,
made a sympathetic study Of the Jews
who live within the pale Of settlement and
wrote four act piece entitled 'levrei'
The jews, which the censor allowed him
10 print and circulate, but not 10 produce
onthe stage For NJ. Orleneh, also Russian,
who has the subject at heart, the author
h,. changed this to a three act drama,
eliminating some Of the minor characters
snd introducing many inoendiary Ines
since the piece is to be given abroad only.
The play ia a study Of the principal Jewish
type. in Russia to-day. The plot Is fur
ri.hed by the love Of an orthodox Russian
for an educated Jewish girl. Leissr RTenkel,
n natriarchal matchmaker and pious Jew,
who has already been through three anti
Semitic massaoTes, has two children,
R7ruch and Leah Mime. Orleneffl, both
excluded from the university for partici-
rating in student disturbances, At home
they discuss social problems, the painful
topic Of all intelligent Russian subjects
Their friend NdchmdR (Orleneii), a teacher
~ Hebrew, a visionary enthusiast re-
sembung George Eliot's Mordecai, Is filed
with Zionistic dreams Herzl il his hero,
and his heart aches for his oppressed people.
B)rvch, however, cries: Our mother
country is here he pins his faith to Karl
Marx socialism and assimilation. Leah
wants assimilation, too, for she unfortu-
natey falls in love with her brothers ohum
and fellow student, BsreFin, a Christian.
NdchmdR 10 in love with Leah and when he
finds in a pathetic scene that she loves
B reEiE he weeps, zone sun, then has set
n my heart, but have another: love my
PEOPLE When old Leiser discovers his
daughters love for BereEin he is inconsol-
able.
Behold, he walls, 'there came a great
y ind from the wilderness and carried all
away
Meanwhile rumors OF the Kishinefi mas
sacre come more and more thiokly. Close
your shutters!' policeman warns them at
the end Of the second act.
In the third act the shutters are closed
end the Frenkel house Is like a house Of
death, full Of wailing and weeping The
pogrom, or massacre IL raging about IT..
NdchmdH, gifted with vision, gives Leah
p revolver against the impending calamity.
BerestR begs her to 60 with him. At that
point the mob breaks in and falls upon
BtrCEiH, just as II he were a Jew.
He "a a Christian, cries Ledh.
lem Christian BereSiH echoes feebly,
but the rllffians bear him down and pursue
Leah Then Ndehmdn's revolver helps
where BeTeRiH's Christianity failed. Leah
shoots hersef. His sooialistic tendencies
the author shows by presenting at the last
BorNoh at the head Of few workingmen
realistic and powerful were the last scenes
that there was not dry eve In the audience.
Other types besides those mentioned are
introduced. IzsrSoH, a laborer OF intelli-
cence represents the sooialistio working
classes; Dr. FuTmdH stands for content
ment Of the ldissez fare SNUG kind. Srpl
q Newspaper carrier IL like droll figure in
Mr.. ZanRwill's Ghetto books The acting
Of all was Of 80 high an order that even those
who could not understand Russian were
carried away by IL.
Mr.. Frohman lent his theatre to the Orlen-
ef company for the afternoon. In view
Of its success the company may hire some
other theatre in which to continue its work.
women prominent in society were in the
nuHianRa