Two Great Jewish Theaters in Moscow Cal, Full of Energy, Boldness, Youth, at the Jewish Kamerny in Moscow Speak for Itself When It Comes Here
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Two Great Jewish Theaters in Moscow cal, full of energy, boldness, youth, At the Jewish Kamerny in Moscow speak for itself when it comes here. By MICHAEL GOLD. laughter—the spirit, not of the bible, however, the play has been made All I can do Is prophesy that it will but of A MONG many of the American Intel- young Communism. into a theatrical symphony. Every- create a revolution in the minds of The Jewish Kamerny, under the di- ligentsia it is a common belief thing is in the key of young, vigor the younger American dramatists, ac- rection of another that the Soviet revolution has killed great regisseur, ous fantasy. The costumes, the tors and musicians. Many of them Granovsky, all art and culture in Russia. This has fused many of the scenery, with its planes and levels have been feeling their clumsy way tendencies of the charge has been repeated so often that new Russian theater the dancing, the singing, the speech, toward work like this; the per- into and. even friends of Russia credit it with a synthesis that is something so the gestures, all have been planned formances of the Jewish Kamerny that it is some truth. new almost impossible to and harmonized. Nothing is left to will give them a clear picture of what write about. It must be seen every But it is not true; it is merely an- and chance; each move on the stage, they have wanted in the theater. It heard to be understood. I despair of uttered, skilfully planned other of those strange, malicious word is as will start a new epoch on the Ameri- making it clear, it would be like try- slanders that have been so freely ’cir- in advance as a ballet is planned. can stage. ing to tell anyone that the greatest —— culated to give Russia a name. Granovsky’s ideal has been the syn- -t* ■" 1 ~ bad living singer could be heard id Rus- Time will disprove this lie, it ethic theater of which Gordon Craig mean as sia, if Chaliapin had not come to Am- CLEVELAND, OHIO. has disproved many and other aesthetes have dreamed. so other lies erica to convince skeptics that he about Russia. that He has achieved the synthetic thea- Time will show really was world’s greatest singer. Co-operate the revolution not destruction the ter; a theatre where word, move- ' was a The Jewish Kamerny will soon visit with of culture, great ment, music, gesture and dance are but the renaissance America, too; and perhaps will con- woven into a unity from which of a nation and a world. skeptics one vince here more than any cannot anything; THE CO-OPERATORS COMPANY In ten years artists and students eliminate not the words of mine. gesture from all over the world will be throng- of a hand. Dealers in I saw three productions of ing to Russia just the Jew- Only in very technical terms could as in the middle ish Kamerny; Goldfadden’s old play, Groceries, ages young Englishmen one convey the great work of Granov- Fruits and intellectual The Witch, and a play called “200,000,” and Germans, like sky. I prefer not to attempt a descrip- Vegetables John Milton and and a group of parodies Erasmus, one-act on tion, but to let the Jewish Kamerny went to Italy, for new the methods Jewish 1195 E. ideas. will be of other theaters. 71st Randolph 7059 Russia the world’s Os these plays fountainhead I thot The Witch the Owned of all free and bold finest and controlled by your modern thot during the next few dec- DANCE FOR BENEFIT fellow workingmen ades, The Witch has been often given at Jewish There are. Jews all over the world, theaters in America, but in OF WHITE RUSSIAN for instance, and they have powerful Moscow it was not the sentimental communities in New York, London tale of the poor little silly orphar PRISONERS IN POLAND girl over which Dr. A. Moskalik Paris and Berlin. I have been in all so many Jewish ma- J trons have shed their plentiful tears these cities, and have seen the Jew- The Workers’ Home, together DENTIST , All the vulgar sentimentality and ish life in them, but in my judgment with Peoples’ cheap music-hall hokum has been the White Russian S. W. Corner 7th and Mifflin Sts. the heart of Jewish culture and art Society will give a eliminated from the piece; only the concert and PHILADELPHIA, PA. in Moscow. dance this Sunday, April at fantasy and humanity of the story 5, Scho- Tlflrtwo greatest Jewish theaters in Hall, have remained. enhofen corner Milwaukee and the world are now playing in Moscow Ashland avenues, for the benefit of PITTSBURGH, PA. They the Jewish Kamerny theater The production cannot be compared are the political prisoners in Poland. To those who work hard for their and the Gabima to anything we have yet seen in Am- theater. Os them one Many of the White Russians who money, I will save 50 per erica. The Moscow Art theater and cent on all cannot write calmly—they arc a reve- are fighting for the liberation of the their dental Baiieff’B Souris work. lation to a student of stage craft. They Chauve are not fair territory forcibly annexed by Po- are samples of modern Russian theatrical marvellous laboratories of the land and which Is In fact part of the DR. art. They RASNICK theater, and they are also the finest are remnants of the old; ir Soviet Republic of White Russia, DENTIST Russia the Moscow Art theater blooming of the long-suppressed Jew- is re- are suffering in the jails of Poland. garded by 645 Smithfield Street. ish race-spirit. the younger men as a sort Only a few days ago, the capitalist of museum, The Gabima theater gives produc- where ancient modes of press reported how two of such acting and scenery LEARN ESPERANTO tions in classic Hebrew, the only are presented by prisoners who were on their way to old people who The International Language theater of its kind in the world. I have learned nothing be exchanged for Polish prisoners since The following booklets saw the two plays in its repertoire, the nineteenth century. in Soviet Russia, were shot down are received namely: Gadybuk, and the Eternal The Jewish Art theater models by the Polish chief of police. The Esperanto Manual 45e Jew, First Steps in Esperanto 25c by David Pinski. itself on this old school of photo- All who are In sympathy with the The Esperanto Teacher 35c The Gadybuk is one of the standard graphic art, and therefore its per- liberation movement in Poland are Esperanto for Young Beginners 5c pieces Textbooks Os Esperanto l ttr of the Jewish stage and has formance of Goldfadden’s Witch that invited to attend this affair and languages, literature in Esperanto. been given many times in America. I saw in New York was as unoriginal thereby help the victims of the 100 titles. But it has never been given with the and dull as a play mounted by Be- Polish bourgeoisie. The concert will WORKERS’ ESPERANTO ASSN., genius with which It has been clothed lasco. start at 4 p. m. 525 7th St., Rockford, 111. at the Gabima in Moscow. There it becomes a rich, glamorous epic of the Jewish folk, a blend of Jewish poetry mysticism, music, melancholy and dancing as well as benighted Jewish superstition and bigotry. Vahtangov, a young Armenian reg The Little Red Library isseur of the Moscow Art theater who died a few days ago, was the director The of both .pieces played at the Gabima first two numbers of this little pocket-size library, He was one of the great regisseurs o( destined to become the most popular of any working class Russia and even tho he was not a publications ever issued in this are Jew, his Semitic blood gave him ar country, now being sold instinctive understanding of Jewish by dll Daily Workers Agents thruout the country. life that makes his productions as au thentic as if they had been born in the mind of a native of Palestine. The Gabima is the spiritual center around which a great deal of mystic Jewish Zionism and nationalism re- volves in Moscow. I am not an ad- herent of Jewish nationalistic mysti cisni, any more I yield than can my- Cannon and Earl R. Browder jjisS&KrcH By Earl R. Browder self to the Irish national mystics like Yeats, or the catholic mystics of the stage like Claudel. These mystics write nobly of infinity, god, the soul wing the cosmos, but when one goes under militanTstruggle’ttra'the^B. the purple and gold of their imagery finds the skeleton one of the same most valuable number for the 100 per cent patriotism and national- v ■———•—■■■ ■ ism that has plunged the world into L____________________ so many ugly, bloody wars. To grow mystical over one’s nation or one’s you have as seen a copy race is to join hands with the ku klux If not yet of this splendid little klan of one’s nation and race. propaganda giant, and have not enjoyed the valuable reading One cannot apply a political test to in be sure the Gabima. however. It is a great art each, to ask your local Daily Worker Agent for , theater, and a poet and artist finds a copy—or o dozen copies. (They are twelve for fl.00.) himself ravished by the beauty of its perfect performances.