Judge, 1923-02-03 · page 10 of 36
Judge — February 3, 1923 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Ralph Barton's Impressions of "Tsar Fyodor Ivanovitch" This is satirical commentary on the Moscow Art Theatre's production of a historical Russian play. Barton mocks American audiences' enthusiasm for this culturally foreign work—a five-act tragedy in Russian about an obscure Tsar, comprehensible only for the "-ovitch" suffix ending Russian names. The cartoon ridicules the pretentiousness of attending avant-garde theater you cannot understand. The elaborate costumed figures (likely actors from the production) are caricatured as affectedly exotic. Barton suggests viewers' fascination stems from snobbish cultural aspiration rather than genuine appreciation. The text sarcastically notes that even if the actors were as accomplished as Michelangelo, the play remains incomprehensibly distant from American experience—"as near to your heart as the Amir of Afghanistan's manicure scissors." It's social satire targeting 1920s highbrow theater culture and American cultural pretension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Ralph Barton’s Impressions of ‘‘Tsar Fyodor Ivanovitch” ICTURE yourself sitting through five acts of historical tragedy with a title like that played in Russian (of which you understand nothing but the ‘~——ovitch”), about a period in Russian history that is as near to your heart as the Amir of Afghanistan's manicure scissors—and imagine yourself being thrilled to the marrowbones by seen the celebrated Moscow Art Theater. a not too fastidious career since’ Michelang: Moskvin and the rest of M. Stanislavsky’s compa! perfect right to have it tattooed on their backs—then it is