New Plays

Jacob's Dream. Continuing to stick its tongue out at common sense reality, the Habima Company adds another to its weird repertory, this last, however, being of less sombre stuff. As the title suggests, the play contains the familiar characters: Jacob, Rebekah, Esau; the familiar implements: the ladder, the mess of pottage. But it strays from the story told in the Sunday School texts. However, the Habima Players know their Old Testament well enough to keep the spiritual significance intact. Moreover, they know their theatre.

Earl Carroll's Vanities. Following the "Fifth and Grossest of All" comes the International edition of Earl Carroll's Vanities. The hordes in the chorus look much like their predecessors, are engineered about into similar stage designs by the same swinging hooks, rising platforms, whirling chandeliers a-dangling with girlies. The international phase of the title and show is suggested by the presence of several Chariot Revue actors (English)--not, however, Beatrice Lillie or Gertrude Lawrence. They do one clever, satirical skit, in which a radio play is presented; in which all the spoken lines are made to contain stage directions and descriptions. Julius Tannen and his oddly trained seal with a rose-colored muffler, are also on hand. But the best part is still Moran and Mack, lackadaisical, lethargic, ridiculous dialogue comedians.

The Ballyhoo. A maudlin play stutters about the love of Starlight Lil, circus-rider, for an irreproachable young man. She considers herself unworthy. To free the boy from his passion for her, she pretends to offer herself as the stake in a cowpunchers' card game. That makes the hero so angry, he rushes out into the night, divests himself of virtue. But the villainous-looking Judge fools everybody by turning up with a truly great Western heart about the end of Act II, and reconciling the two lovers. As the final curtain steals down, the heroine pats her boy lover on his curly noddle, fixes an intent gaze on Row M, chants mystically, "Life is all a great joke."

In Abraham's Bosom. Eugene O'Neill brought the Greenwich Village Provincetown Theatre to theatrical, artistic prominence. When he went "uptown," the Provincetown came upon evil days. Along comes another Moses to lead them out of debt. He is Paul Green, young North Carolina teacher, author, playwright.

In Abraham's Bosom concerns a Negro who tried to raise up the Carolina blacks through education. Blundering, fanatically inspired, he plods to frustration, overcome by white prejudice, black inertia, his own blunted intellect and headstrong passion. The play is constructed on the episodic model (seven scenes, no act division) covers a 25-year period, many places. The title role is played by Julius Bledsoe, giant Negro whose remarkably resonant voice won instant recognition in the Stallings-Harling opera Deep River. In diction, technique, the cast is not up to high professional standard, yet the presentation is so sincere, the playwright's revelation of Negro character and tribu- lation so keen, that it merits the interest evinced by packed houses.

The Brothers Karamazov. The first Guild play of the season, Juarez and Maximilian, failed. Then followed Ned McCobb's Daughter, Pygmalion, The Silver Cord, all successes. Now comes The Brothers Karamazov, in five long acts. It, too, seems destined for success.

Like many another play of the year (An American Tragedy, Hangman's House, Sandalwood, The Humble [from Crime and Punishment], The Constant Nymph), it is extracted from a novel. So different is the pithy compactness of the stage from the spread of the novel, that it is unfair to call these efforts "translations." They are more nearly "re-creations." Yet the play, The Brothers Karamazov, by Jacques Copeau and Jean Croue (translated into English by Rosalind Ivan) would be found to contain the full literary significance of Dostoievsky's novel, though wanting in dramatic fulfillment by reason of its uncrystalized theatrical version of those spiritual gropings which gave even Dostoievsky a bitter struggle on a more spacious field.

Fleshy Feodor Karamazov has begot, among others, three legitimate sons. The fierce appetites of the sire burn in the brothers. The father is murdered, the oldest son accused. Innocent, he accepts the punishment of Siberian exile, in order to repent the many excesses of his tempestuous nature, thus enters Salvation. The youngest brother finds light and peace in the holy sacrifice of priesthood. The second, whose fate is stark tragedy, has evolved a philosophy of cold rationality, wherein there is neither God nor morality, but only masterful determination to take advantage of every circumstance Fortune throws his way. Apprised of his father's approaching assassination, he assumes a "hands off" attitude, profits by another's crime. But, in the end, his "philosophy" is revealed to him as a mere ra- tionalization of the beastly Karamazov nature, whereupon his tower of reason topples into madness. With two love stories, these three threads are woven into an intricate stage pattern, directed by Jacques Copeau, who came to the U. S. for that special purpose, enacted by a cast including Alfred Lunt, Clare Eames, Lynn Fontanne, Dudley Digges, George Gaul, Edward Robinson. It will alternate weekly with Pygmalion.

Junk. Guffaws, not intended by the author, greeted this confection; Playwright Edwin Self is advertising manager for the Dayton Rubber Manufacturing Co., Dayton, Ohio. All praise to Dayton had he written a play, but has he? Junkman Ernest John (corpulent Sydney Greenstreet) has informal chats with God; radiates sunshine; feels led to rob a bank to help an aged invalid lady; with approval of the author does so. Old Sal (Emma Dunn) after rampaging all she can to offset the drivel, climaxes with a nerve-wrecking unexpected shriek--as Ernest John, in a large chair, slowly dies.

Lace Petticoat. Years ago, Carle Carlton produced Tangerine, Irene, then turned his back on Broadway. Now he returns with Lace Petticoat. Good songs by Emil Gersten-berger and Producer Carlton, ingenious dances, Adelaide & Hughes abominable lines, stale humor! make it an uneven entertainment. Suggested by Deep River, it concerns a beautiful Louisiana nobody, whose romance is almost blasted by the rumor that she is a quadroon. In the last act, somebody says it is mere gossip. Song: "South Wind Is Calling." Tom Burke is the hero-tenor; Vivian Hart, newcomer, the joy of his stage life. Notable is a chorus of skeletons in radium-paint.

List

Theatregoers will find the following selection worthy of first consideration:

DRAMA

An American Tragedy--Skips from high spot to high spot of Theodore Dreiser's novel wherein salvation army religion fails a boy in trouble.

Beyond The Horizon--Eugene O'Neill's tragedy of a wanderer who tried farming, and a farmer who tried wandering.

Broadway--Essence of cabaret cacoethes. Brilliantly realistic.

The Brothers Karamazov--Reviewed this week.

Caponsacchi--Walter Hampden a militant saint in effective dramatization of Browning's "Ring and the Book."

The Captive--One of Fate's crazy shuffles wherein a feminine, body gets a masculine instinct, and struggles in vain.

Chicago--Crude, healthy satire on how a murderess greased with tabloid gush squeezes through the wheels of justice.

Civic Repertory--Great plays at popular prices ($1.50 top). Eva Le Gallienne.

The Constant Wife--The double standard gives way to double sin, with Ethel Barrymore to make it attractive.

Daisy Mayme--Elaboration, by precise George Kelly, of the happenings in a small town.

The Dybbuk--By the Habima Company, impressionistic mystical drama in Hebrew: by the Neighborhood Players, mystical drama done realistically, in English.

The Play's The Thing--Dramatist Molnar and Actor Blinn conspire to laugh the hiss out of scandal.

The Silver Cord--"Now to go home and shoot Mother"--on Sidney Howard's advice.