Israel Zangwill
The Melting-Pot
e-artnow, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
EAN 4064066060756
Table of Contents
THE CAST
[As first produced at the Columbia Theatre, Washington, on the fifth of October 1908]
| David Quixano | Walker Whiteside |
| Mendel Quixano | Henry Bergman |
| Baron Revendal | John Blair |
| Quincy Davenport, Jr. | Grant Stewart |
| Herr Pappelmeister | Henry Vogel |
| Vera Revendal | Chrystal Herne |
| Baroness Revendal | Leonora Von Ottinger |
| Frau Quixano | Louise Muldener |
| Kathleen O'Reilly | Mollie Revel |
| Settlement Servant | Annie Harris |
| Produced by Hugh Ford |
[As first produced by the Play Actors at the Court Theatre, London on the twenty-fifth of January 1914]
| David Quixano | Harold Chapin |
| Mendel Quixano | Hugh Tabberer |
| Baron Revendal | H. Lawrence Leyton |
| Quincy Davenport, Jr. | P. Perceval Clark |
| Herr Pappelmeister | Clifton Alderson |
| Vera Revendal | Phyllis Relph |
| Baroness Revendal | Gillian Scaife |
| Frau Quixano | Inez Bensusan |
| Kathleen O'Reilly | E. Nolan O'Connor |
| Settlement Servant | Ruth Parrott |
| Produced by Norman Page |
Act I
The scene is laid in the living-room of the small home of the Quixanos in the Richmond or non-Jewish borough of New York, about five o'clock of a February afternoon. At centre back is a double street-door giving on a columned veranda in the Colonial style. Nailed on the right-hand door-post gleams a Mezuzah, a tiny metal case, containing a Biblical passage. On the right of the door is a small hat-stand holding Mendel's overcoat, umbrella, etc. There are two windows, one on either side of the door, and three exits, one down-stage on the left leading to the stairs and family bedrooms, and two on the right, the upper leading to Kathleen's bedroom and the lower to the kitchen. Over the street door is pinned the Stars-and-Stripes. On the left wall, in the upper corner of which is a music-stand, are bookshelves of large mouldering Hebrew books, and over them is hung a Mizrach, or Hebrew picture, to show it is the East Wall. Other pictures round the room include Wagner, Columbus, Lincoln, and "Jews at the Wailing place." Down-stage, about a yard from the left wall, stands David's roll-desk, open and displaying a medley of music, a quill pen, etc. On the wall behind the desk hangs a book-rack with brightly bound English books. A grand piano stands at left centre back, holding a pile of music and one huge Hebrew tome. There is a table in the middle of the room covered with a red cloth and a litter of objects, music, and newspapers. The fireplace, in which a fire is burning, occupies the centre of the right wall, and by it stands an armchair on which lies another heavy mouldy Hebrew tome. The mantel holds a clock, two silver candlesticks, etc. A chiffonier stands against the back wall on the right. There are a few cheap chairs. The whole effect is a curious blend of shabbiness, Americanism, Jewishness, and music, all four being combined in the figure of Mendel Quixano, who, in a black skull-cap, a seedy velvet jacket, and red carpet-slippers, is discovered