New-York tribune., 1921-12-21
The New Play
By Percy Hammond
'sThe Idle Inn'' and Ben-Ami
Do Not DO So Well ai
the Plymouth as They
Did Elsewhere

One fears that Ben-Ami and his
associates were not auspiciously dis-
posed last evening in their endcavor
to transfer from the Yiddish to the
American theater the popular folk-tale
known as "Thc Idle Inn In fact, al
most everything connected with the
proceedings, except perhaps the spirit
which inspired them, was a botch The
translation was inept, being neither
one tongue nor the other, the stage di-
rection sprawled and was incchercnt,
the narrative was cmphaeizcd in its
least interesting phases and the acting.
as n consequence, partQok of all the
surrounding infirmities. The perform
arce, of course, had its sentimental
values for those who are moved By photo
graphic reproduction of the picturesque
/ back-waters. The dress, the customs
and the characters Of a rural settle
ment hard by Danzig were illustrated at
length. There were small family feuds,
romance which failed in some way to
twang the heart strings, dances, cere-
At'NA-fS' e@itN q 5iStNt " ti4Se1t WiilShSA H6N,
but little, if any, drama
Eisik (Ben-Ami) is inflamed by his
cousin. Matte Miss Eva Macdonald
and she, though less hotly, by him
They may not marry because of family
enmities and the circumstance that
Eisik is alleged by his uncle to be 81
horse thief Nlatrimony, however, is
arranged for Matte and 1iebush, the
silly son of Mendel, ncighbor, and
it is planned that they shall become
the operators of haunted hospce
known as the Idle Inn, after is has
been removed to precincts less super
natural. In the midst of the wedding
revels a cadavcrous band of so-cailed
travelling salesman appears, and, pre-
sumably at the bchest of Fisk, they
whisk the bride away.
There IL where. I think, the play
buckles and goes avry. These CHASTITY
visitants, instead OF producing d pleas
ant sense Of horror, succeed only in
being ridiculous. They are merely
lugubrious peddlers with q comic as
sumption Of dignity, and their speech
and appearance are a fatal combina-
tion of KuKlux and the Holy Rollers.
Last evening at the Plymouth they
we're SO ingenuously ludicrous that even
the most revcrent OF those present
might condonc the otherwise for their
obvious derision. 1t must have been
painful to the cogncscenti to see so
pregnant an opportunity abort in such
funny fashion. And until that time,
Ben-Ami, our idol. had done little to
prove that his feet were not OF clay.
I write as one Of those who regard
Ben-Ami as a fine actor, and I shall
not be dismayed by his cuttings-up in
"The Idle Inn" But all that he did
last night at tho Plymouth was to
swagger and to be drunk, to pull the
noses and slap the faces of the super
rumeyaries, to spit and grinacc, to
dance and be frenetic Ben-Ami and
Miss Macdonald did their best last eve
ming to achieve thrilling finish to the
play. They sat in front Of sort Of
campfire, and they loved and hated
alternately in a most perplexing fash
ion. They desired, so they said, to tear
one another's eyes out and burn them
in the flames, and to break one an
others legs in the frenzy Of their
affection. They assumed in these pro-
ceedings some grotesque postures,
actual, perhaps, but considerably short
of being satisfactory. Miss Macdonald
was eloquently reticent at times, and
always very good to look upon. Miss
Mary Shaw was Of the cast. as q me-
lancholy mother, moaning and kcenins
in "A manner most wOafu1