New-York tribune., 1920-09-12
Vienna Iheatricals Totter
| Beneath Starvation and
! Suffering of Their Actors

v.,earsing daily for eighteen hours
..sa,,t a stop Is hard work, but Ru-
nS AS Shildkraut does not seem to
acipIS Il He has come here to work,
niau s.rs - adding: "Europe has forgot
~ 93aash;ldkraus hSSi the Great" they call him
,ss East Side, as they called him
par,in and Vienna. two cities where
4aJkraut gained his great name. In
SSa.S;n he was for many seasons the
ne,a.;nal player at Max Reinhardt's
ps.hanse In Vienna the famous
ssss :. Theater was his home. He left
sasffst.er city six weeks ago for this
49, Ns "the only refuge left in the
ssrld for seekers and Missionaries of
ps ps. the Jewish Art Theater, where
!. o,ened forty weeks engagement
rfotnighs ago with Silent Forces"
Camedie Francais "hit" OF few
srs ago, Shlldkraut told the story
The theater in Vienna. once the
vsst European capital. but now "a
e. Of shadows" from which million
Ionic disappeared IN the years OF
Ear, most of them victims OF starva-
ton. ,;,.o ;s;+;o
,sneu the eredullty OF men and women
w. Shildkraut said, but it is quite
ls.', ,rsnal thing to see in the morn
.ss e. women and children overhaulng
cans and refuse barrels in the
...ts Of Vienna in search of some
discarded food.
,svadsvs, but it is only the Viennese
,ssn knows what is in back of this
msssr,v. II is one way of drowning
80 sorrow. to forget ones hunger
nsw way with the artists of Vienna,
ssrscia!ly those connected with the
Issapr. a luxury in these dark days.
TstSsaded q studio party just before
nv asparture for this country. There
sssmsd to be strange hilarity about
ths eayety. l wondered. Presently it
Sss explained to me. The guests had
nat aaten for many days. Some of them
had been heard talking about suicide.
He party was hurriedly called for
!DuYing the last winter season the
heaters, in spite Of the high tariff on
ssats. were packed. There was no
csal In the city, so people came to the
heaters which, although unheated,
wsre much warmer than their homes.
The cheapest kind of plays were given,
although here and there managers per-
sisted in adherng to the "Viennese
tradition" People did not care about
tug piays or players. Art no longer
naMAred. They came to the theater
to forget the dreadful realities Of life.
Much as in restaurant one finds out
from the menu what there is to eat, so
theater-goers in Vienna learn from
tbe printed program, after taking their
seats in the theater, what the play is
eping to be.
THE imperial boxes in the theaters
os Berlin and Vienna are filled after
neon after afternoon, there being few
essning performances because of the
laek of lighting facilities, with the
newly rich, spectators and profiteers,
who now set the fashions in the arts
Aunehing sandwiches from paper bags,
these parvenus loudly discuss the
play and the players. Very few of
Nenna's theaters are giving serious
plays. In q sense they have been
turned into homes for starving actors,
siRce managers are obliged to keep
their actors until conditions will i'm
psc7s..
of~his return to the Jewish stage
Shildkaut said it was no longer a con-
dsseension on the part of an actor
with European reputation to play in
Yiddish. "Not after the Jewish Art
Thsater Of New York has won for it,
self the admiration Of the theatcr
world" he remarked. He said many
actors in Germany and Austria, now
that Austria has been dismembered
and her population is not larger than
that Of New York City. are preparing
to come here. st is perhaps the most
pathetic thing" he said, that there is
nothing TO do in Europe"