American Jewish Play ‘the Tenth Man’ Opens in Berlin Theatre

A mixed German Jewish and non- Jewish audience greeted with applause and laughter last night the opening of the first German performance of Paddy Chaeysky’s “The Tenth Man. ” The play deals with synagogue patterns in the United States

The play is being presented in the Berliner Theater as an American contribution to the 12th annual Cultural Festival in West Berlin. The translation was made by Eric Burger, a writer born in Berlin who has lived in New York for the past 20 years. He told newsmen last night that he had to eliminate some of the Jewish religious ritual “because there are some things a German actor Just cannot do.”

The plan to show the play initially created some opposition from West Berlin’s tiny Jewish community who felt some of the rites might be misunderstood by a German audience. But the audience seemed to enjoy and accept the lively religious scenes without difficulty although the playwright’s allusions to the problems of management faced by a modern American rabbi appeared to puzzle the German playgoers. It will run here for several weeks before starting a tour of several West German cities.