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"Women Men Forget" is a melodrama with a
moral, which will be felt by many women. The subject is taken from
life, although the author gave it quite a bit of salt. The play
would be much stronger if it had less "strong action," but this is a
shortcoming from which every melodrama suffers. The writers of this
sort of plays don't understand this, that the "strength" of a drama
does not consist of "thunder and lightning", but in the sincerity of
the action; not in the tearing the nerves of the viewer, but in making
him feel that that what he sees is the truth, forcing him to
believe that what comes from the stage really comes from life.
The play presents the tragedy of a woman who gives everything to
her husband and children and demands nothing from them. The drama
takes place in the house of the Fleischer family. Abram, the
husband, is a lawyer; he has a wife, Rosa, and two adolescent
children, a son (Harry), and a daughter (Pearl). The action starts
on the day when the family is celebrating the silver anniversary of
the parents, the twenty-fifth year after their wedding.
What
has happened in the house before the beginning of the drama is
entirely understandable and also typical. Every year of her
married life the wife thought only of her husband and children. She
didn't know what was going on with her husband outside the four
walls of the house. She believed everything he told her. She
believed that she was faithful to him and conveyed that she was
satisfied with how much he gave her for household expenses, that she
spent as little as possible on clothes and saved him money for a
maid. She did not know that in the long years of his practice as a
lawyer, he worked very well and made a lot of money. She also didn't
know that the money she saved for him for the house he spent on good
times for himself, on secret loves and other pleasures.
All
this happens before the play begins. The drama depicts how the woman
finally opens her eyes and sees what he is doing to her. She opens
her eyes not by her own awakening, but because the people in the
house start to wake her up. This is what the adolescent children do,
and so do her and his parents. The man has been involved in a love
affair lately, which threatens to cause a scandal. In addition, he
is now less careful than before, and the wife with whom he leads the
novel is more reckless. She demands from him as much as possible of
his free time, and as much as possible of his attention and of his
money. All the people in the house notice it, everyone except the
wife. But they talk to her, waking her up ... In addition to the
fact that she lost her husband through her goodness and
faithfulness, she also loses her children. The daughter falls in
love with an Italian, and the son unwillingness commits a murder. At
the same time she loses her husband, also losing both her children.
This really makes the tragedy more terrible, but this also makes the
drama too melodramatic.
And if all this is not enough,
another terrible thing happens to the woman. Through her troubles
she has a nervous breakdown and loses her memory. She must be taken
to a sanitarium.
It goes without saying that everything will
be fine in the end. That's how it is in a melodrama. No matter how
great the disaster may be in the first two acts, everything is fixed
in the last act. Not only does she get healthy, but she also gets
her husband and children back. The play begins with a holiday (the
silver jubilee) and ends with a holiday (the wedding of the daughter
with a Jewish boy).
The production is not bad, although many
of the actors have little stage experience. The main role, the role
of the wife, is played by Dora Weissman. Those who remember the
actress from the former years when she was famous and beloved as a
soubrette will be surprised to see how well she acts in a dramatic
role. She deserves a compliment, that she understands how to rein in
the melodrama. She does not follow the old tragedies of melodramatic
plays. She creates the best effects especially in the quiet scenes.
The three parents act very well: Celia Boodkin as Rosa's
mother; Charlie Cohan as Rosa's father, and Morris Silberkasten as
Abram's father. Charlie Cohan creates a comical type of an old
cantor, a buffoon and a brat. Once the cantor used to like to
indulge in sin and now he likes to at least talk about the sin.
Cohan brings out this type very successfully. Silberkasten's role is
more serious, and he excels. The same can be said about Celia
Boodkin.
A good impression also is make by two young actors:
Manya Schlossberg as Pearl, and Sol Josephson as Harry. I have never
seen either of them acting before, but they demonstrate that they
can develop into good actors. Sol Josephson, for the most part, has
personality and can dance and sing.
Among the others who
participate in the play are: Max Lasky, Zena Goldstein, Leon
Schechter and Sally Schorr.
The play was written by Anshel
Schorr, who is also the stage director and producer.
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