"The greatest art to play on the stage is to
speak naturally, to speak like a person speaks, to speak
simply, not artificially -- and this was known to Sarah
Adler. Sarah Adler was the first natural actress on the
Yiddish stage. Her naturalness tends to make you forget that
there is an actress before you, that you have seen before a
person who tells of her sufferings and joys, and you believe
her in what she says and who she represents. The most
remarkable thing was that her husband, Jacob Adler, with his
Adlerian charm, did not speak on the stage in a natural
manner, but with a stretched-out, festive sound. Mainly in
those romantic times the entire world stage spoke in a
Hamlet-like manner; even in life every actor also used to
speak in a theatrical voice. How she came to play in such a
natural true tenor naturally was to be admired. A true
talent finds their own way ...
The first role that I saw Sarah Adler play
was in Tolstoy's "Resurrection" as "Katyusha Maslova." A
very good company played with her, and Jacob P. Adler was
the officer Nekhlyudov. But I must say that at the
production of "Resurrection," I heard the voice of "King
Lear," the sound of historical operettas. But, entirely
different was Sarah Adler; she, with her natural voice, is
far away from them all. After the production I asked by
brother, Itsik, whom he felt was the best in the company,
and he answered: "The best of them always is Adler's wife."
Her name, "Adler's wife," has followed her entire life. But,
remarkably, the greatest patriotte (fan) of Jacob Adler's
acting was Sarah Adler ... Abraham Goldfaden once told me
that he reckoned that Sarah Adler was the best "Shulamis."
Although she hadn't played "Shulamis" for a long time, I
once asked her, when she had played with Rudolph Schildkraut
in the "Novelty" Theatre, that she should once play
"Shulamis." I was very curious to see her in the role,
mainly with that natural tone of hers, but when I saw her in
"Shulamis," I heard an entirely other tenor, which drew far
and wide in the East: oriental love, oriental suffering and
passion. I imagined that this is what our mothers should
have done, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah. Explaining that in love,
this is how their encounters with our ancestors sounded ...
The naturalness of Sarah Adler's playing is reflected in her
private life ... She has always possessed the breadth and
sincerity of a popular person. Rarely does one find such
sincerity in theatre people. When she loved someone, she
said it and pointed it out, and also vice versa ..."
Source of Testimony
Joseph Rumshinsky -- "Joseph Rumshinsky
Tells About Fifty Years of Yiddish Theatre," Forward, March
12, 1953.
