From Stereotype to Metaphor: The Jew in Contemporary Drama by Ellen Schiff, and: Hollywood’s Image of the Jew by Lester D. Friedman (review)

"The Theatre We Worked For": The Letters of Eugene O'Neill to Kenneth Macgowan. Edited by Jackson R. Bryer with the assistance of Ruth M. Alvarez, introductory essays by Travis Bogard. Yale University Press, 274 pp., $25.00 (cloth). These letters show that O'Neill early on abandoned the melodramatic elements of his plays, and with Macgowan began working for an "art" or experimental theatre. When direction of the Provincetown Playhouse was assumed by Macgowan, Robert Edmond Jones, and O'Neill, the playwright was encouraged to move even further toward a treatment of theatre as a primarily visual, expressionistic art form. The use of devices such as elaborate sets, masks, and large choruses peaked in his plays Lazarus Laughed and Marco Millions. The Provincetown triumvirate eventually dissolved and O'Neill soon left the country. Physically divorced from the theatrical milieu, he changed his view of his own role in the theatre, seeing himself less as a co-worker in a theatrical ensemble than as an isolated writer. O'Neill became interested in a starker and simpler theatre influenced by Greek tragedy. His work ultimately became more specifically personal and less concerned with the larger social and moral questions he had addressed in mid-career. The correspondence which details all this is expansive but incomplete. The collection is marred by useless information such as whether or not letters were typed, and on what letterhead. The division of the book into sections depending on O'Neill's residence is convenient but hardly useful. The introductory essays by Travis Bogard are generally aptly written, but overemphasize the details of O'Neill's personal life. This book can be a useful source for those willing to sift through it. Kevin Duffy From Stereotype to Metaphor: The Jew in Contemporary Drama. Ellen Schiff. SUNY Press, 276 pp., $9.95 (paper). Hollywood's Image of the Jew. Lester D. Friedman. Frederick Ungar, 390 pp., $8.95 (paper). Schiff's study of the Jew in drama begins with an introductory chapter which traces the stage history of the Jew from medieval butt and villain, evil Renaissance moneylender, Racinian biblical personage, to the more enlightened depiction in the late nineteenth century. But, Schiff intelligently points out, "The turning point in the representation of the Jew on stage was not the emancipation of the Jews, but the emancipation of the theatre." She offers an historical overview to prepare her main area of con133 centration-the Jew in drama since World War II. With chapters on themes such as "The Jew and Other Outsiders," "Crises on Conscience and Consciousness ," "The Jew in a Jewish World," a chapter on the Yiddish theatre, her book is a wide-ranging study which culminates in a discussion of contemporary works that Schiff believes metaphorically treat the Jew's suffering, resilience, social commitment, longevity, and sense of humor. Though Friedman organizes his readable and comprehensive Hollywood's Image of the Jew chronologically, he extracts similar themes and attitudes from the depiction of Jews in cinema. He does more than Schiff to connect the screen image of the Jew to historical circumstances, often calling upon sociological and demographic reports. The earliest depiction of the Jew in films, as evil outsider, parallels the Jew on the early stage centuries before, and Friedman traces a similar development toward his gaining dimension and variety. Still, he sees themes that have persisted from the silent movie to the films of today-of survival in an alien environment, assimilation, intermarriage , oppression. Friedman also discusses the involvement of Jews in the movie industry, beginning with Samuel Goldwyn, Marcus Low, William Fox, Adolph Zucker, "barely literate businessmen with an innate insight into the dreams and nightmares of the American public, men who never completely lost their accents or forsook their religion, (who) became rulers of opulent dream factories that spewed forth cans of American fantasies." If Friedman's language is sometimes a little inflated, his division by decades too pat, his insights and arguments are always sound and expansive. His discussion of the McCarthy period, "The Frightened Fifties," is especially good. He also includes useful, detailed appendices: a chronological listing of JewishAmerican films, and rental information. AS 134 ...