New-York tribune., 1919-11-23

ga consp cu0us waste that we have
~ failed to make use of the genius
of Emanuel Reicher in our
English speaking theater, leaving
1t to an unknown group in the obscure
Niddish theater to give him the mate
rlals he needs to work with. What
otherwise should have been small
insurgent movement of no more than
local significance has become, through
the authority Of his direction, vigor-
Gus and Illuminating artistic expert
ment.
The Jewish Art Theater has grown
out OF the dissent OF a small body
within the Yiddish theater against the
native limitations of the Yiddish stage.
It is an attempt TO relate the Yiddish
theater to the general body Of mod
ern culture. Scattered throughout the
, eight theaters that make I'D the Yid-
dish speaking stage in this city there
were younger Yiddish pIaywrights who
wished to give wider significance to
folk drama than the popular colloquial
expressions permitted, and actors who
desired to bring into the theater the
figures of modern European dramatists.
Under Reicher's direction they have
made four productions. none of them
without distinction, and two of them
OF quite extraordinary skill and
beauty.
1t is impossible to oserestimate what
Reicher has contributed toward making
The Idle Inn" and "The Dumb Mes
siah' two of the most remarkable ex-
amples of modern producing that New
York has ever seen. He has handled
the materials of stagecraft. of the
plays and of acting with a magnificent
intelligence and skill: he has built
them IN noble proportions against
background of wide and cultivated per
ceptlons. He has underlaid them with
true emotional force and under
standing.
Inevitably the direct significance of
the Jewish Art Theater must BE lin
tied. 1t Is, however, bound TO BE-
powerful influence on that minority
OF the English speaking theater which
represents q similar discomfort. What
might an American art theater come
to under such leadership as Reicher's Z?
# minorities are usually led by such
men as Reicher it is easy to under
stand why they are powerful He looks
as though he had been hewn out of
something firm and very durable. He
seems impelled by powerful and
dynamic imagination. There is d men
tai and physical force in the man that
seems to call for heavy impacts.
kelcher Is sixty years old For forty
years abroad and here he has broken
ground for the moiern spirit in the
tneater. He was a pioneer, perhaps
the leading one, of realism in the Con-
tinental Theater. He flung gibe at
romantic acting before naturalism in
acting had so much as become for
mulated creed.
Reicher was born in Cracow, Poland.
The Russian milieu permitted the Jew
| ~
try, and the orthodox Jewish milieu
was too narrow to hold him. He
moved to Germany, and there, in the
eighties, he became an actor of ma
tional reputation. II was the time of
the awakening of modern culture, and
Reicher longed eagerly to express 1t
| in the theater.
By the light OF Ibsen, which was then
rising, he saw a new future for the
theatsr. The blank amazement and
hostility with which the first produc-
.tions Of 1bsen were received served
only as challenge to him. He had b
natural taste for going against the
current. When he saw Ibsen accepted
and finally revered, he did not cease
to be of the dissenting minority. A
whole world of new conceptions in ar,
lay open. and the work of the pioneer
had only begun. There were still