The New York herald., 1922-12-03

und Sohn" are all of very dark hue. as
the same canvas has already been
painted so many different colors that
Only with dark gray or black can the
audience be for a moment. deceived into
thinking they have new scenery. So
the managers are wisely sticking to the
successful plays that have attracted
audiences before. Hence we have
Madame Sans-Gene" with the popular
and sprightly actress. Kathe Dorsch. in
finitely inferior of course to Rejane. but
still passable) Max Pallenberg, Ger
many's greatest character actor, in Der
Warvau," more familiar to us as
Grumpy !" Albert Bassermann, in Der
crosse BARTON" In which we recognize
Leo Dietrichstein's success of some
years ago. THE Great Lover" TIA
Bouche" at the Theater am Nollendorf-
platz Under the title of "Dein Mund :?
three or four plays by Bernard Shaw
as many of Shakespeare, Tristan Ber-
nard, Anatole France, Roman ROLAND.
and a dozen others Of established repu-
tation.
Shakespeare Draws.
Max Reinhardt's Crosses Schausptel-
haus, holding over five thousand people,
plays to capacity to Rolland's Dan
shrew." This last is a rollicking pro-
duction, with all the verve and spright-
liness that belongs in a Shakespeare
farce and is so often lacking. Rein
hardt always manages to put into his
Shakespeare a fund of genuinely old
English "go" and the "Widerspenstigen
Zahmung" evokes as many laughs as the
latest successful farce comedy.
Albert Bassermann is one OF Ger
manys most popular actors. The trouble
is he is too well aware OF this and can
not resist the temptation to fiirt with
his audience every minute of the time.
OF course this Is in character, for the
great lover" Is a born actor, but COM
pare him with our own Dietrichstein and
he seems a trifie vulgar. Der Crosse
BARTON" is conspicuously American,
rapid in action, sketchy, sentimental, but
the. audience enjoys 1t. Some one said
that Germany was rapidly becoming a
nation of German Americans, certain 1t
Is that before the war an American play
had pretty hard time Of 1t in Berlin.
Pallenberg Is remarkable in Der
Wauwau." Here Is a sentimental char
acter play in which Cyril Maude GER
tainly created human being: could the
thing be done by some one else? You
might not think 50 until you had seen
FalIenberg, but Pallenberg has done the
trick and his Grumpy Is In many re-
srects superior to the original creation
it is more studied and vastly more
subtle.
But the finest acting is to be seen at
the Deutsches rhcater. where Alexander
Moissi achieved his first successes. He
offered two performances of "The Living
Corpse" (linovn to New York by John
Barrymore's performance In "Redemp-
t:on") and "The Light That Shines in
Darkness" two posthumous plays by
Tolstoy. The second OF these is a
powerful drama In which is shown the
struggle of man who, like Tolstoy, at
tempted to base his life on the teachings
Of Christ as revealed in the New Testa-
ment. The play IS practically revela-
tion OF the impossibllity of living that
sort Of life among human beings.
Moissi reaches the heights OF quiet
tragedy as SdrynSer, the idealist who Is
eventually forced to relinquish his ideals
in order net to disrupt the lives of every
member of his family. Once again this
remarkable artist created his most
powerful effects with the simplest OF
means his triumph is triumph OF the
unemphatic, his voice rarely rises above
a whisper and his greatest speeches are
delivered without opening his mouth.
And what of the original German
plays? Won der Goltz's Water und