Critical Moments

The other night, as a matter of fact it was on Wednesday night, Hyman Adler presented at the Maxime Elliott Theatre Leslie Reade’s stirring and horrifying drama of what happened to one Jewish family in Germany under Hitler. The English playwright has called his play “The Shatter’c Lamp,” and if there is any one in New York who can see it and remain unmoved then that person should hurry to a clinic to see how he has been able to live without a heart.

THE IRONIC TOUCH

Reade found his title in a poem by a gentle Shelley which reads:

“When the lamp is shatter’d The light in the dus lies dead–“

Taking this thought the playwright has fashioned a brutal, stabbing drama which shows only to well how Hitlerism has shattered the ideals, dreams and hopes of the humanitarian. In plot the play traces the tragedy that overtakes the kind Professor Fritz Opal and his family. The professor’s wife is a Jewess and because of this the Hitler storm troops vent their insane spleen. Before your eyes appears a realistic enactment of just how the Hitlerites through their brutality, callousness and cruelty drive people to death.

AUDIENCE HISSES

A first night audience was visibly stirred by the proceedings. They cheered the hero and hissed the villain, played with great skill by John Buckler who, in the role of the intense Hitler nationalist, was responsible for most of the dirty work. Guy Bates Post as the professor plays the part as though he were born for it. He always was a fine actor and in this role he has a chance to bring forth the best of his talents. He acquits himself with honors. Miss Effie Shannon, as his wife, is always believable.

PROPAGANDA, SO WHAT?

“The Shatter’d Lamp” is not a great play artistically. It is frankly propaganda but propaganda in the sense that it is based entirely on truth. There cannot be too much of this sort of thing. Americans must be bludgeoned into realizing what is going on in Germany today. The play is unpleasant, certainly you will not leave the theatre exhilarated by what you have seen, but you must see it, you must not forget for a minute the problem that confronts us. You must support this play. Send your Gentile friends!