Sholem Asch's Polish-Language Theatrical Debut

The path to the stage

On 21 January 1905 an unusual, indeed sensational, premiere took place at the Teatr Miejski in Kraków. In the course of a single evening two plays were performed: the two-act Z biegiem fal ('With the Current'), as well as the one-act Grzech ('Sin'), in which, as the Kraków press announced, 'the writer has presented original and tastefully captured scenes of Jewish life, introducing interesting cultural features and details of ritual'.¹

The writer, who had come to Kraków to supervise the final rehearsals, was the 24-year-old Sholem Asch, who was described after the premiere as 'an undoubtedly interesting phenomenon of the highest calibre. Until recently he has been writing in Hebrew and Yiddish, and only when encouraged by Stefan Zeromski did he translate his stage pieces and submit them to the management of the Kraków theatre.' Nowa Reformats critic Władysław Prokesch justified this praise of Asch in the following terms: 'Among the populous ranks of literature's new recruits there are so few who have anything to say, that it is with real pleasure that we should greet a writer whose first efforts for the stage show evidence of serious thought and an original view of the world.'²

Despite a number of reservations, on the pages of Przegląd Polski Feliks Koneczny too argued that the young writer was 'an interesting literary figure' and had 'enormous talent', while Konrad Rakowski in the most widely read Czas opined that 'a prominent feature [of both works] is the talented artistic organization, evident throughout in the methods and means with which Mr Asch strives to express his thoughts and consolidate them in dramatic form'.³

The circumstances of Sholem Asch's Polish stage debut have attracted in the past the attention of a number of serious scholars, whom it behoves us to recall. The death of the 77-year-old Asch in July 1957 led to a wave of publications on 'the greatest Yiddish writer', as he was widely referred to. The literary monthly Twórczość printed Asch's 1930 autobiography 'Spojrzenie wstecz' ('A Backwards Glance'), which is testimony to a moving attachment to 'the monotonous picture of the flat countryside' and 'a picture of his home town' Kutno. The writer paid homage to his 'teacher and guide' Stanisław Witkiewicz and to Stefan Żeromski, from the latter of whom he had learnt 'to take my profession seriously and serve my people wholeheartedly':

It was in their circle too that I wrote my first plays, Nawrocony [lit.'The Convert'; but Asch referred here to his play Tsirikgekumen] and Grzech. Mrs Witkiewicz translated the first of them into Polish while I dictated it. Witkiewicz and Żeromski worked hard to have my first play accepted by the Polish National Theatre in Kraków (which, given the state of relations between Poles and Jews, would have been an event at the time). And indeed I soon saw my first play on the stage.

Asch added that, thanks to a payment from the theatre, 'our financial situation improved somewhat'.⁴

Odra, a Wrocław-based journal, also honoured Asch, publishing his poem 'Marsz triumfalny' ('Triumphal March') in May 1958—'a kind of personal Kaddish, a prayer for the dead said for the murdered Polish Jews, with whom he had always felt deeply connected'. This work contained a striking description of 'a parade of dead' Jews who emerged to greet the Red Army entering an empty Warsaw.⁵ Its translator, Anna Dresner, added a short biographical note on Asch. The actor Henryk Cudnowski, who had come into contact with Asch at the turn of 1904-5, found fault with this biographical insert, adding some information of his own. He recalled that his friend from Zakopane 'had sailed out into deeper waters in 1905 as a young Polish writer'. At that time Cudnowski was working in Tadeusz Pilarski's ensemble at the Morskie Oko hall, which a great many creative artists, including Żeromski, visited: 'One day during rehearsal', recalled Cudnowski...