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Poldekin is a 1920 play by Booth Tarkington. It is a four-act political satire with three settings and ten characters. The story concerns a Russian soldier brought to New York City to produce Bolshevik propaganda, who strays from his mission. Adverse audience reaction to the original ending resulted in Tarkington rewriting parts of the play during its opening tour.
The play was produced and staged by George C. Tyler, and it starred George Arliss. It had an opening tour from February through May 1920, then went on hiatus. It reopened with a different supporting cast for a two-day tryout before it premiered on Broadway in September 1920. Though well received by some academics, it proved unpopular with critics and audiences, and it was withdrawn after 44 performances.
Lead
Act I ( An apartment in a Russian city.) The setting shows signs of struggle from outside; flames flicker dimly through glassless windows and holes in the walls. From time to time shots are heard: singly, a few together, then in bursts. Podoff has gathered the others to discuss their upcoming mission to America. To hone their language skill, they have agreed to speak only English among themselves. Maria serves them tea; Poldekin has joined the group solely to see no harm comes to her. They discuss the mission, though Poldekin's enthusiasm seems more nuanced than the others ideological fervor. He punctures their assertions about Bolshevism with dry wit. They regard him as an amiable halfwit, and so assign him an easy task: printing propaganda tracts when they reach New York. ( Curtain)
Act II ( Backyard of a New York City tenement.) The group's members have taken separate rooms in a tenement filled with immigrants from many countries. They meet in the backyard, and continue to speak in English, since Poldekin points out it is the least understood language among the building's inhabitants. Poldekin annoys everyone by asking the same question repeatedly: What is America? He confounds his colleagues proposals by pointing out the inherent difficulties, and thwarts any suggestion that Maria carry out her task to assassinate an official. Having heard about baseball, he asks Pinsky to take him to see it. Pinsky, who pretends to be indifferent, agrees. ( Curtain)
Act III ( Same as Act II.) Poldekin reports back to the group on baseball, but his appreciation of it draws rebukes from his colleagues. The others try to convince Blanche to join their cause. Being a social outcast, who names the geraniums in her flower-box after lovers, they feel she should be an easy convert. But Blanche isn't eager to give up what little she has to state ownership. She rejects their arguments, and the commotion draws the attention of Welch. He plys Endechieff with a vile concoction he calls a Brunswick cocktail, and the tipsy bolshevik soon turns tipster. Poldekin realizes he has embraced the idea of America in preference to Bolshivik theory; as he does so, the act ends with a Decoration Day parade, only the flags of which are glimpsed over the top of the tenement fence as they go by to stirring music. ( Curtain)
Act IV ( An apartment in the same tenement.) The police have picked up Endechieff, who fingers the others. They are all brought to Poldekin's apartment. The police intend to charge them with distributing seditious literature. However, they find that instead of Bolshevik propaganda, Poldekin has printed copies of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Welch and the police are stymied; they release the whole group from arrest and depart. Poldekin argues with the others that America is better run than their own revolution. Maria is convinced, some of the others are swayed. Nicolai is more upset with Poldekin than with Endechieff. He pulls out a pistol and shoots Poldekin. In the original ending of the play, Poldekin dies at this point, with Blanche afterward placing a small American flag on his chest. Tarkington's revised ending has Poldekin only slightly wounded, and he survives to marry Maria. ( Curtain)
It then went to the Court Square Theatre in Springfield, Massachusetts, where a local reviewer praised Jean Robertson's Blanche, and Mannert Kippen for "making the Russian intelligentsia intelligent" and not a "stage Russian". But they also pointed out Poldekin's death "breaks down the main thesis of the play". Another Springfield newspaper critic went even further, opening their review: "Just why Booth Tarkington should becloud his latest play, Poldekin, ...with a tactless and blundering death denouement is a mystery".
By March 15, 1920, the production had reached Ford's Theatre in Baltimore, where after dying four nights in succession, Poldekin was given a reprieve. Tarkington, responding to audience reaction, revised the Act IV ending overnight, which was performed for the first time on March 19, 1920. Thereafter the production played smoothly to decent reviews in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Cleveland before the inevitable summer shutdown, when Arliss would return to England. In Pittsburgh, the reviewer "Gibby" subtitled their report "Baseball vs. Bolshevisim" and reproduced Poldekin's Act III description of a baseball game to his comrades.
| + Cast during the opening tour and the Broadway run. Production was on hiatus from May 23 through September 5, 1920. | |||
| Poldekin | George Arliss | Feb 21, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920 | |
| Podoff | Carl Anthony | Feb 21, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920 | Anthony was one of two supporting actors to keep their role from the earlier production. |
| Maria | Jean Robertson | Feb 21, 1920 - May 22, 1920 | |
| Elsie Mackay | Sep 06, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920 | ||
| Pinsky | Guy Cunningham | Feb 21, 1920 - May 22, 1920 | |
| E. G. Robinson | Sep 06, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920 | ||
| Nicolai | Mannart Kippen | Feb 21, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920 | Kippen was the other supporting actor to reprise his original role from the spring of 1920. |
| Endechieff | William H. Barwald | Feb 21, 1920 - May 22, 1920 | |
| Emil Hoch | Sep 06, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920 | ||
| Krimoff | Stapleton Kent | Feb 21, 1920 - May 22, 1920 | |
| Hubert Wilke | Sep 06, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920 | ||
| Blanche | Norma Mitchell | Feb 21, 1920 - May 22, 1920 | |
| Julia Dean | Sep 06, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920 | ||
| Welch | Edward Donnelly | Feb 21, 1920 - May 22, 1920 | |
| Sidney Toler | Sep 06, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920 | ||
| Sergeant | Jack Ellis | Feb 21, 1920 - Feb 28, 1920 | Ellis was replaced after one week for unknown reasons. |
| Irving Deckford | Mar 01, 1920 - May 22, 1920 | ||
| William H. Barwald | Sep 06, 1920 - Oct 16, 1920 | Barwald switched from the role of Endechieff in the Spring of 1920. | |
Charles Darnton reported that the play lacked action but "There is no end of talk, much of it amusing and some with the tediousness of repetition. Though one of our very best story tellers, Tarkington pays little heed to story this time", concentrating instead on an idea. And that idea was erroneously simplified, according to Heywood Broun, whose review approached Poldekin more as a tract than a drama. Broun excoriated Tarkington for not distinguishing between political and economic systems, and faulted his confusion of bolshevisim with various forms of socialism. Broun did admit that there was a nice tree in the scenery for Acts II and III.
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