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The Hopkinson Theatre
482 Hopkinson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
This production opened on September 5, 1925.
 

"DI FARSHPILTE YUGEND"
(Lost Youth)

author unknown

 

This review was written by Hillel Rogoff for the Yiddish Forward newspaper, and it was first printed for the September 25, 1925 edition. Here it is:


"The Lost Youth" in the Hopkinson Theatre is a much quieter melodrama, and as the performance shows, the director Misha German tried to make it even quieter and more pleasant than was written down. Here there is only one truly melodramatic scene, when a bridegroom learns a minute before the wedding that his bride was at one time living in an "indecent house." This occurs by the end of the first act. And even the scene is performed in a much quieter way than one is used to seeing on the Yiddish stage.

The most important role in the play is that of the bride, and she is played, contained and pleasantly by Lucy German.

Misha German, in the role of the bridegroom, and Yekhiel Goldsmith, in the role of the bride's father, play in the same contained tone. The author of the play has created very pale characters for them. The actors, however, with their acting abilities, gave the character quite a bit of blood, quite a bit of soul.

Very interesting and amusing is Yudl Dubinsky in the comic role of Sholom Knopp, a milkman. Dubinsky shows with his acting that even in melodramas, he can amuse the audience in an indefinite, intelligent way. The role is and is not to be taken lightly. The "phrase" is also not ai-ai. But Dubinsky himself is here, and there is his imagination, and with the poor little words and the even poorer situations that the author threw at him, he has worked out some scenes that can amuse theatre audiences of all kinds.

The play also contains several quite beautiful songs, sung by Lucy German, Tania Poland, and Morris Novikoff.

Several burlesque scenes are performed by Isidore Lipinsky and Clara Rosenthal. Lipinsky belongs, it seems, to the class of comics, just like Jacob Rechtzeit. He also thinks that the more you throw yourself, and the more you jump, the better. Clara Rosenthal, who plays together with him in the majority of scenes, is much calmer, much quieter, and therefore indeed much better.

Misha
German
Lucy
German
Yekhiel
Goldsmith
Yudl
Dubinsky
Tania
Poland
Morris
Novikoff
Clara
Rosenthal
Isidore
Lipinsky

 

 

 

 

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