The Play

...The production, in its authentic representation of Jewish religious custom, its incorporation of Jewish sacred and folk music, and its superb artistry in the arrangement of groups— especially remarkable in the scene where the poor are gathered in the courtyard on the wedding day, and weave their uncanny, weird and terrifying dance about the bride—is beyond criticism, and one that will long be memorable...

...Indeed, from the principals to the subordinates in the cast, every performance is more than satisfying...

...The mystic circle beyond which the dead may not pass...

...But the Neighborhood has gone farther than achieving mere mechanical effects of good stage-setting, for the psychic atmosphere of these mystic people whose life so closely impinged that of the invisible world, permeates not only the stage, but the entire theatre—strangely, fearfully—till the unseen wings of the spirit world sigh about one, remote, yet pathetically near in their poignant burden of the earth-sorrows from which death has not been merciful enough to release them...

...Two men—life-long friends, marry on the same day—to •each in due time is born a child, one a girl, the other a boy...

...But if there is no new Rosemarie which the audience leaves the Cosmopolitan whistling or humming, they have provided a colorful and amusing entertainment, a chorus that scores high for pulchritude and talent, and plenty of fun—clean, at that...

...For "when these are in the hands of any but the most holy, they are a danger and may bring destruction...

...The score of Oh...

...King is a comedian who has his own "stuff...

...We counted to twelve and gave it up, conceding the record...

...It seems unlikely that any chorus ever changed its dresses quite so often in the course of a single performance as the ladies who supply the choreographic element in Oh...

...For some psychological reason, jokes that have an undertaking parlor for their leitmotif seldom fail to be sure fire hits...

...Nurse ONE catchy tune, it is pretty well established, will make the fortune of a musical comedy...

...Particularly fine is her art in the scene where the Dybbuk, having taken possession of her, is commanded by the Tsadik to depart, and she plays, in her outward semblance of a young girl, the hunted, driven, frightened yet determined soul of Channon clinging to the body of his love...

...yet his spirit hovers near the earth, unable to leave its beloved...

...As punishment for this sacrilege, he dies...

...When it appears as though he had been defeated, his love for Leah is so great that he attempts to venture beyond legitimate prayer and delve into the mysteries of the Kabbalah, forbidden to all but the Tsadik, or Holy Man...

...But the father of the boy leaves his native town and dies in poverty...

...She becomes possessed of a "dybbuk"—the restless, injured soul of one who haunts that misty half-world close to the earth, yet not of it, and wilfully enters the body of a living person...

...Nurse...

...December 30, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 215 THE PLAY The Dybbuk IN The Dybbuk, a play by S. Ansky translated from the Hebrew, which had its premiere on December 17, New York witnessed a memorable triumph...

...and the spiritual betrothal of the two young people is strengthened by the great love that comes to «ach for the other...

...For this transgression, Leah, in turn, is punished—and the soul of Channon enters her body...

...A review of the play should not attempt to describe "Mary Ellis as Leah"—for Mary Ellis is Leah—an interpretation and performance it will be difficult for New York to forget...

...The preparations for Leah's wedding to the eligible young man chosen by her father, continue...

...In the end, driven out of Leah's body by the powers of the Tsadik—to whom is transmitted "the power of healing, of foreseeing, and of divine inspiration...

...the blowing of the ram's horn, are all symbols of that belief that ties together the world of fact and the world of the spirit...

...One wonders if he had not been better left wandering off-stage...

...Albert Carroll, who plays Channon gives, as usual, a fine performance—and one regrets that his appearance is limited to the first act...

...The soul of centuries is here...

...Ansky, who after an estrangement from, and indifference to, the ideas of his own people, turned once more to the study of their lives, their history, their folk-lore, and their religion, desired in The Dybbuk to portray the life of followers of Chassidism—a sect of the Jewish religion which arose in the eighteenth century...

...Vistas, more fascinating because foreign to the average playgoer, of the spiritual outlook of ancient Judaism—wistful, with all the wistfulness of the seeking for salvation—firm, with all the firmness of an abiding faith—unfold in beauty, and leave their intangible, suggested impress long after the play is ended...

...After much persuasion, her grandmother permits her to invite also the soul of Channon—although an invitation to spirits other than those of blood relatives is contrary to the religious law...

...Their fathers pledge them to each other in future marriage...

...In such a belief do the characters of this strange drama move and have their being...

...It developed as a reaction against rabbinical asceticism and encouraged spiritual exaltation through ecstatic song, movement and feasting...

...Above and around each act, portraying the story of two lovers —predestined from birth for each other, thwarted by the material ambitions of the girl's father, obedient with their bodies to his will with the obedience of a race to whom "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother," was, in every sense, a Commandment, yet incapable of bending their souls to the denial of their love—hovers and whispers the very spirit of the religious life of the Jews...

...a play not of three scenes, but rather of the entire, tragic panorama of the spiritual history of a race...

...But Leah's father has other plans for her now—she must be married to a young man who can give her wealth and position...

...It was, says the Neighborhood's playbill, "a mystical interpretation of Judaism, and was founded by Ba'al Shem Tob...

...When he tests synthetic Scotch whiskey on a thumb nail ("if the nail stays on the stuff is all right") or hangs himself on a clothes peg to balk his pursuers, the audience reaches for its sides...

...The Dybbuk> fraught with drama and the appeal dear to playgoers since the time of the world's first play—that of ideal yet thwarted love—has yet, perhaps, a characteristic that at least to one mind, is a flaw in an otherwise great play...

...of holding trial between the living and the dead, and of exorcism"—the Dybbuk returns to his beloved and enters her soul, and the two unite in death...

...Helen Walker...

...but on the bridal day, she goes, ac-cording to the custom of her people, to the cemetery, to ask the spirits of her dead relatives to her wedding...

...Is it heresy to hint that even Stanislavsky might once have been in error...

...Meshulach (the Messenger) who follows the characters through every scene and philosophizes on the griefs that come to them, yet appears in no way to add to the story, nor to contribute anything necessary to theme or atmosphere, seems extraneous, and dragged in for a purpose, which, if ever existent, has been lost in the interpretation...

...I introduced him on the advice of Stanislavsky, and in bringing him in I have emphasized the central idea of the drama...

...the protection of the seven black candles...

...The dramatist is quoted as saying— "The only part of the play which is not realistic is the Meshulach, whom I have purposely portrayed in mystic terms...

...Without him The Dybbuk would be artistically perfect...

...The ritual of the ceremonies employed by the Tsadik in the exorcism of the Dybbuk, "has been established by tradition...

...Most of the latter is provided by Leslie King, as a moribund bridegroom under contract to die on August first...

...The son returns to Brianits as a student in the synagogue there...

...But that is just where emphasis seems to have become overemphasis...

...Nurse leaves the impression that Carlo and Sanders, the lyricists, tried hard but didn't quite pull it off...

...Life is generous to the father of the girl, who becomes a wealthy merchant...

...the sanctuary of the Holy Scrolls or sacred law...

...The central idea of the drama, which one assumes is the mystic element, has back-bone enough and more to stand out in wonderful beauty and compelling atmosphere without this uncouth figure, wandering about and getting nowhere...

...It is true his drolleries have the advantage of being steeped in a strong mortuary flavor...

...This drama as produced by the Neighborhood players who have drawn every hinted) hidden symbol from the lines of a Russian-Jewish playwright whose mind was heir to all the rich mysticism of an ancient religion, and portrayed them on the stage with a directness that is yet a delicacy—this play is a play, not of three acts, but of a thousand and one, and more...

...Yet Channon is determined to win his predestined love with the only means at his disposal— prayer...