TOLERATION

Southland Times, Issue 20200, 10 June 1927, Page 8

TOLERATION

ABIE’S IRISH ROSE A SENTIMENTAL FARCE SERMON PREACHED WITH LAUGHS Wise men who give advice to people writing for the public delight in the laying down of rules, which they sometimes elevate to the dignity of laws, for the guidance of their less fortunate brethren, and they persist in this practice in spite of the frequency with which they have been proved to be wrong. That, of course, is the fate of all dogmatists: Time finds them out. It is only necessary to give a law enough rope in order to see it hanging itself on some exception. All the pundits of the drama have found their gallows, and the crows are now busy on the corpse of the fellow who said that the war of the creeds must not be discussed on the stage if the box office is to remain healthy. “Abie’s Irish Rose” has been responsible for this execution, and it has done its job well. The professors of dramaturgy can even up the score by explaining what a paltry thing the play is, how insignificant as a dramatic effort, how lacking in originality, but the authoress, contemplating the noughts being added to the million dollars she has already stacked in the bank, can afford to laugh at them, as J. Hartley Manners laughed at the experts when “Peg o’ my Heart” proved to be a gold mine. “Abie’s Irish Rose,” after a halting start, which seemed to confirm the critical condemnation, launched itself into a New York run that seems to be no more finite than a repeating decimal: already young people marrying in New York are booking seats ahead for their grand-children. What is the explanation of this persistence? “Abie’s Irish Rose” has been established as a record-making success and one explanation of its interminable run in New York is the presence of the Irish and the Jews in that city in large numbers. That is a mouth-filling explanation, but unfortunately it is not all the truth. “Abie’s Irish Rose” shows parents in conflict and brought to friendliness by their grandchildren ; but that is not all the truth. It is a farce; but farces have failed. It is a character play, like “Bunty Pulls the Strings,” but that does not supply the reason of its success —imitations of “Bunty” were dismal failures. No, the essential fact in connection with “Abie’s Irish Rose”—topping the pile of causes already mentioned—is that it is built with materials that have been tried in the theatre for years and years and have been proved. It is a well-known law that “Cinderella” never fails on the stage, no matter how she is attired, and it is equally sound to say that a large swathe of the theatre’s broad comedy for two or three generations at least has been based on the idiosyncrasies of the Irish or the Jews. To put the tw r o into a play, therefore, is a perfectly safe play, and it is only necessary to tone down the slap-stick stuff a little to convince any English-speaking audience that it is not looking at vaudeville patter artists. The explanation of this is that the stage Irishman, though he was not authentic, was nothing worse than an exaggeration. There was a large slice of truth in him. The same can be said of the stage Jew. By paring this exaggeration the portrait goes nearer to authenticity and all the sure-fire comedy remains. “Abie’s Irish Rose” is a happy play, it is a broadly funny play, it is built of theatrical stuff and it knows what the public wants. But evrti if this sounds plausible and perhaps convincing, it does not complete the explanation. There remains the influential fact that the play’s implication in favour of the ending of the wars between the creeds agrees with the hopes of common men and women. Bigots are never admired, and the sermon “Abie’s Irish Rose” preaches with its boisterous fun and its thick sentimentality, is that the love of a man for a woman is a more powerful thing than theological disputing because it is a universal thing and the quarrels between the creeds are parochial. The play runs a simple course. Abie, the son of a rabid Jew, marries the daughter of an Irishman who hates Hebrews almost as much as he hates Orangemen. The wedding turns both parents against the young pair, but the birth of twins brings peace. As a contrast to the bigoted fathers the audience sees the ministers of the two churches, a priest and a rabbi, who found in war service that the battles of the creeds are too small for the minds of men. Throughout, all the old catch-words of the bigots are used freely and the influence upon the audience is for a happier brotherhood. That is one of the most important of the elements in the play’s make-up to ensure its success. 4 The acting in the presentation of the play at the Municipal Theatre last night, where a packed house enjoyed the play from end to end, was efficient without being distinguished. There were no stars in the cast, but if anything Mr Jack Trainer as Solomon Levy was the most convincing, though undoubtedly John McCabe as the Irish father Patrick Murphy was naturally convincing. Mr Alfred Gordon as Isaac Cohen and Miss Berta Walden, Mrs Isaac Cohen, on broad comedy lines were excellent and the priest and rabbi were also satisfying. Miss Grace Stanford looked charming as Rosemary and was always attractive, but it was difficult to see what she could find in Abie, whom Mr George Duryea made far too artificial. At times it was impossible to hear what he was saying, but for the most part he antagonised one by his stiffness and his namby-pamby methods. Still he was not enough to spoil the enjoyment of the audience, which obviously liked the play hugely. “Abie’s Irish Rose” will be repeated to-night.