All identifications are made left
to right. Back row, standing: Lazar Freed, Celia Adler,
Morris Silberkasten, Anatol Winogradoff?, Izidor Casher,
unk, Morris Strassberg, unk. Seated on bench: unk,
Maurice Schwartz, unk, unk. Seated on ground: Unk, unk, Berta
Gerstin, unk.
From Martin Boris' unpublished
biography of Schwartz entitled, "Once a Kingdom":
The Art Theatre spent most of the
summer in London, at His Majesty’s Theatre in Haymarket,
where the best English plays from Shakespeare to Noel
Coward were presented. At first, their reception was
invigorating, the British mainstream critics very
favorably impressed with Yoshe Kalb—not as great
literature, but as spectacle (as were their American
counterparts). One English reviewer described it as “a
magnificent piece for the theatre [. . .] brilliantly
expressive.” He reported that “the demand for curtain
calls even drowned out the playing of the national
anthem afterward” (Times 31 July 1935).
When in London, do as the
Londoners. Since its better drama critics would attend
premieres and spend an inordinate amount of the
intermission at the playhouse bar, so did Schwartz. He
was no tippler, but he did so want to win over the
press, all in the service of his Art Theatre. Whether
the hail-fellow-well-met routine paid dividends, Maurice
would never know for sure, except he did receive
universal raves from the staid London Times, and the
trendier Daily Examiner and Daily Herald.
With the arrival of fall, interest
in Yiddish Theatre slowly petered out in London. Maurice
blamed the unexpected slack on the assimilation of
London Jews into the general society. Perhaps a tour of
the English hinterlands might reverse the Art Theatre’s
fortunes, just as a summer tour in America had always
been good medicine for the spirit and the bank account.
Relkin booked them into Leeds and Manchester, where they
bombed badly. “Both cities have synagogues, cantors and
rabbis. Their Jews observe tradition by preparing
gefilte fish for the Sabbath. They collect charity for
Palestine—not too much, but every little bit helps.
However, Yiddish Theatre for them was an alien concept”
(Schwartz 22 Aug. 1945).
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