New-York tribune., 1919-10-15
Drama a
Barney Bernard at His Best in
His Honor, Abe Potash,'
al Bijou
By Haywood Broun

If Montague Glass and Jules Eckert
Goodman say prayers at bedtime, they
should begin with God bless Barney
Bernard.' No piaywrights of the sea
son have been so completely indebted
to their star for the success of their
entertainment
Although Perlmutter is missing "His
Honor, Abe Potash" may be reckoned
as the fourth in q series of p avs OF
similar vein. There is still humor to
be gathered here, but it is beginning
to wear thin in spots. The humor is
not as spontaneous as 1T was IN the
first of the Potash and Perlmutter shows.
Nevertheless, Bernard appears to better
advantage than ever before 1T seems
to us that he is even better than the
playwrights could possibly have ex-
pected. for, in some respects. they
handicap him severely. According to
our notion. they have not been willing
to bank sufficiently heavily on Ber-
nard's extraordinary talent for emo
tional appeal. He showed at least a
suggestion of this power in ABE and
Mawruss." but his reputation is still
chiefly as a funny man. He was funny
last night, but we were even more I'M
pressed by his work in scene in which
he was called upon to play the part
Of man who hnds himself slap up
against the fact that he must sacrifice
everything to do what is right. The
poignancy is heightened by the fact
that this man who feels within him the
drive to 60 on and smash himself for
the sake OF his convictions is ridicu-
lous figure not in any way fitted to
derive romantic consolation from the
crash. Bernard not only brings out
every possible tug of emotion in every
spoken line but gives startling effect
of an actual physical disintegration in
the man. One almost sees the thing
catch hod of his muscles and his
nerves.
1t is performance of extraordinary
skill and sincerity, and it is all the
harder because the authors have not
played quite fair, but have insisted on
breaking up the most serious scenes by
making Bernard afford his own comic
relief with humorous lines, some of
which are quite out of character And
yet he carries it all with such direct,
dience believe in him as a person and
not as mere funny man in a show.
Practically all the sincerity comes
from Bernard. The play is obviously
what is called "vehice" because you
can see the wheels Much of it is
funny. Some Of it is very funny, but it
is not the fun which lasts throughout
an evening without stating because
most OF the lines are not written with
any intent to make them sound like
true talk" Rather, they are paragraphs
for funny column, and by and by
one cannot escape the realization that
they are not wrought but cast. The
mark of the mould is on them.
We are also somewhat irritated by
the plays patronizing attitude toward
Jews His Honor, Abe Potash" fol-
lows the somewhat familiar practice
of saying in effect, "The Jew is 81
ludicrous, low comedy figure, but he
has heart of gold' Moreover, one
of the big moments of the play sounds
note which we don't believe for &
second actually represents the convic-
tions of Mr.. Goodman or Mr.. Glass.
difficult duty rather than betray q
trust. and another character in the
play applauds him and says that he
must indeed take this attitude because
in his office IS mayor he stands before
the world as the representative of the
whole Jewish race This seems to US
not only nonsense, but rather per-
ncious nonsense. Do Mr.. Goodman
and Mr.. Glass, we wonder, begin each
new play by exclaiming, "Now we must
make this d good one because if we
40 duyluiliS leoo ttldi Out DCoN ~ W ~
reflect upon the Jewish race? 1t
would be just as sensible for US, before
beginning newspaper piece, to take
thought and say, Pray Heaven, | can
finish this column without bringing
discredit on the Second Unitarian
Church." Abe wanted to do his best
because he was mayor Goodman
and Glass try to make their plays as
good as possible because they are play
wrights. And we would like to do the
same because we're a newspaper man
but we cant see that it is any business
of Gentiles, Caucasians, Unitarians
or fellow citizens Of the 5th Ward
what we do.
In strcssing the gifts Of Barney
Bernard in downright heart stirring
scenes of deep emotion we have no de-
sire to slight his gift for comedy. He