The New York herald., 1922-09-27
MISS BARRYMORE SUPERB IN
HA UPTMANN'S PEASANT TRAGEDY
Rose Bernd,' Dour and Hard,
Made Tolerable by Admi-
rable Acting.
ny LAWRENCE REAMER.

When the New York theatergoer hears
the word repertory he is likely 10 look
dubious. If he is disposed to be un-
pleasant about the matter he may even
whisper "Wolf. Wolff" But there is
every reason 70 have confidence In the
artistic conscience OF Arthur Hopkins.
Certainly Miss Ethel Barrymore is al
SO the union of the two in repertory
season at the Longacre Theater may be
as enduring as II ought to be If the
best interests Of the theater's art are to
be served. At all events the new ven
ture began last night with every indica-
ton of public favor.
Perhaps there were intervals in which
the enthusiasm of the audience was to
be taken as a more or less acute graft
tude for favors to come. Miss Barry
more in Gerhart Hauptmann's peasant
tragedy, with which the new season was
begun, reveals the actress in a role
which for its lack Of bravura and sim
plicity is to be lilkened only to the
charwoman of Galsworthy's 1.-THE Silver
Box"
"Rose Bernd" has been condensed by
Ludwig Lewisohn, who translated the
work from the German into three acts.
The heroine is girl of the fields who
sinks through her love for one man and
her necessary surrender TO another that
she may not be exposed to her father
and her betrothed 10 perjury and in
fanticide. She Is an all but helpless
victim in the grasp OF fate she Is
powerless to understand. She suggests
the elemental and human traits of Tess
30 ,.tNx NxrCt Inc
emotions and her inability to struggle up
from the consequences of this false step
which gradually envelope her life.
Others In the Wreck.
1t is not alone the girl that suffers.
The lover whom she eventually accepted
and her religious father go down in the
wreck of her own life. Even the two
men who have shared her guilt suffer
for their participation in her wrong
doing. although to a less extent The
man she had loved from childhood must
not stand more than the reproach Of
his invalid wife. There is the intima-
ton that the man who compelled her to
yield that her guilt might not become
known suffers the same ostracism which
awaited the peasant girl.
The character of the glowing lily
that Hauptmann has put into this study
of Silesian life which, like the rest of
his plays, is almost unrelievedly dour
and hard. The color of happy youth
fades from the work after the first
scenes. So there are only its dramatic
intensities to appeal to the spectators
of the girls descent.
The effort to force her into matrimony
with her impatient suitor before the
very magistrate. responsible for her un-
happiness the affectionate interference
OF his invalid wife in the life of this
girl. whom they had known since she
was the childish companion Of their
dead son; the slow realization of her
narrow minded father that sin could
come into his family. and the generosity
of the sckish lover. who had seemed
only q prig when II was in his power to
come to the rescue of the guilt stricken
girl--these were the incidents that
passed before the eyes of the audience
ir the fields OF the bare Silesian farms
OF in the comfortable homes OF the
village dignitaries.
Miss Barrymore,s Saving krf.
It was the superb acting of Miss Bar
rynore that alone made this study Of
North German peasant life tolerable to
be SPECTATORS. NO play IN the Aaupt :
mann theater Is less worthy of export.
Rose Bernd" is now more than twenty
years old. Has 1t ever before travelled
beyond the boundaries of Germany to be
acted in any foreign tongue? Probably
not. II would not have been difficult
to find an explanation from any intelli-
gent person in the Longacre last night.
But the play as 1t was held the audience
spellbound when Miss Barrymore was
on the stage.
A peasant girl Of heroic model in which