4.9. Anatol
Zyklu-
Drama, Movie, Music,
Art News
SECTION FOUR
LE
ANATOL
ATTIE
YCEUM
Joseph Schildkraut Re¬
turns in Schnitzler
Revival
By JOHN MASON BROWN
THE remembering will doubtless
tell you that when Schnitzlers
"Anatol was first presented at the
Little Theatre some nineteen years
ago with John Barrymore in the
title role, there were those who not
only failed to surrender to its ur¬
bane charm but who felt outraged
by the conscienceless way in which
it chronicled the progress of a Vien¬
nese rake.
Just now, in a world that changes
rapidly, this comedy that Schnitzler
wrote nearly forty years ago is
with us once again, this time as it
was presented at the Lyceum last
evening by Bela Blau and his as¬
sociates with Joseph Schildkraut as
its Anatol. If now, as in 1912, the
play must be greeted with objec¬
tions, these new objections are at
least of a different kind. Most cer¬
tainly their concern is not with "Ana¬
tol" as a moral outrage," because
"Anatol" is not, and never was, that
Instead they spring from a deep re¬
sentment of those features in the cur¬
rent production which combine to
stifle the gayety of Schnitzlers script
and turn it into a slow-moving and
rather tedious bore.
This production at the Lyceum is as
heavy in its touch as the text is light.
What is more fatal still is the sad fact
that all of its six scenes are played
so monotonously that they emerge with
the deadening similarity of so many
peas in a pod. Lacking in variety,
seeming to be but endless variations
of the same theme, they cannot but
do serious harm both to themselves
and to Schnitzler's play. For variety
box 9/4
New York
SATURDAY, ANUA
ME¬
LES
-
ORNE
S.
.
Joseph Schildkraut, Mirjam Hopkins and Walter Connolly in a scene from
Zyklu-
Drama, Movie, Music,
Art News
SECTION FOUR
LE
ANATOL
ATTIE
YCEUM
Joseph Schildkraut Re¬
turns in Schnitzler
Revival
By JOHN MASON BROWN
THE remembering will doubtless
tell you that when Schnitzlers
"Anatol was first presented at the
Little Theatre some nineteen years
ago with John Barrymore in the
title role, there were those who not
only failed to surrender to its ur¬
bane charm but who felt outraged
by the conscienceless way in which
it chronicled the progress of a Vien¬
nese rake.
Just now, in a world that changes
rapidly, this comedy that Schnitzler
wrote nearly forty years ago is
with us once again, this time as it
was presented at the Lyceum last
evening by Bela Blau and his as¬
sociates with Joseph Schildkraut as
its Anatol. If now, as in 1912, the
play must be greeted with objec¬
tions, these new objections are at
least of a different kind. Most cer¬
tainly their concern is not with "Ana¬
tol" as a moral outrage," because
"Anatol" is not, and never was, that
Instead they spring from a deep re¬
sentment of those features in the cur¬
rent production which combine to
stifle the gayety of Schnitzlers script
and turn it into a slow-moving and
rather tedious bore.
This production at the Lyceum is as
heavy in its touch as the text is light.
What is more fatal still is the sad fact
that all of its six scenes are played
so monotonously that they emerge with
the deadening similarity of so many
peas in a pod. Lacking in variety,
seeming to be but endless variations
of the same theme, they cannot but
do serious harm both to themselves
and to Schnitzler's play. For variety
box 9/4
New York
SATURDAY, ANUA
ME¬
LES
-
ORNE
S.
.
Joseph Schildkraut, Mirjam Hopkins and Walter Connolly in a scene from