Famous German to Play in London

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 804, 26 October 1929, Page 26

Famous German to Play in London

APPEARANCE IN HAMLET ALEXANDER MOISSI TALKS Alexander Moissi, the famous German actor who recently visited London, has contracted with C. B. Cochran to appear with a German company in “Hamlet” and Tolstoy’s “The Living Corpse” in June of next year. His next engagement will bfe as Stanhope in “Journey’s End,” in Vienna. “I like ‘Journey’s End’ enormously,” he told an English interviewer, “and

I think the extraordinary thing about that play and ‘AH Quiet on the Western Front/ the" German equivalent, is that both are written by non prof e s sio n a 1 writers. Neither Sherriff nor Remarque had done anything before.

and are direct products of the Avar. I know Remarque very well. He is only 2G. The future of both these writers will be watched with great interest. “I have played Hamlet over a thousand times, appearing in the part in practically every European country and during the last two seasons in America. In Vienna I took part in the modern dress version, which was produced by Ayliff. who was responsible for the English modern dress Hamlet. I do not like the idea, but I must sav that Mr. Ayliff is a wonderful director.” , “What is your conceptfon of the character of Hamlet?” Mr. Moissi Avas asked. “There are a thousand colours in Hamlet,” he replied, “but to me he represents the true pacifist mind. I like him for his pacifism, because I, too, am a pacifist. I detest war and loathe the hangman. Besides Hamlet I have played all the chief Shakespearian parts and several of Shaw’s characters.

“My greatest disappointment is that [ have been unable to meet Mr. Shaw. His ‘lntelligent Women’s Guide to Socialism’ is my Bible, my evangel. T regard its teaching as the hope for humanity, and I am glad that it is widely read over Europe, r have only two criticisms to make. The first is that the title is too complicated; it should be everybody’s—intelligent and unintelligent—guide to Socialism; and the other, that the price, in Germany at any rate, is too high.”