New Plays

Earth. The second production by the young insurgents (TIME, March 14) at the 52nd Street Theatre is more conventional in stage mechanics, though thoroughly "arty" in its choice of subject--the Southern U. S. Negro. Author Em Jo Basshe is by birth Russian, which is merely incidental to the fact that he has not lived long among the blacks. Therefore, it is not strange that his main character, a woman who is torn between voodoo magic and hysterical Christianity, distracted by the death of her six children, driven finally to loud rebellion against all the Powers of Destiny, should represent man in the primitive rather than in the African type. In the end she is slain on a mountain top by the fanatics whose beliefs she challenges. In the course of the drama, the Negro actors chant spirituals, which are welcome to a bored audience.

The Heaven-Tappers are a lot of crooks who draw money from Virginia moonshiners in return for synthetic religion. Their scheme: to invade the domains of the desperate distillers bearing with them the priestly emoluments of a fantastic religious cult; there to prattle assorted mysticisms garnered from better established sects; to work the mountaineers into a frenzy that will persuade them to donate money for the building of a church; then to skip the hills and return to the city bootleggers, with the church fund. Little did they reck that Red Belwyn (Margaret Lawrence), beautiful crookess of the gang, would discover LOVE through the burly person of Devil Ace Gilson (Louis Bennison), head of the Southern Gentlemen's Association of Moonshiners. But she does. And the evildoers drink wood alcohol, thereby losing forever their sight of God's true Heaven. This melodrama, which might have been good satire-comedy, is both thick and thin.

The New Yorkers. Edyth Totten is high priestess of a special cult of suburban ladies who have taken up the drama in a serious, contemplative way. With their conscientious contributions she has built her own theatre. Consequently there is no stopping her. Last week, she presented a semiprofessional revue with professional intentions. The ensuing embarrassment only went to prove again that these things should be left to experienced hands.

Thou Desperate Pilot. Zoe Akins, who loves the refined minority and wrote Declasse, offered this as first of a forthcoming series of plays. The title is derived from Romeo's line on suicide by poison.* Through the intricate entanglements of silken society, Zelda Beale (Miriam Hopkins), U. S. girl, is inveigled into accepting Louis Brant (Charles Henderson), although drawn by love to Lord Eric Hamilton (David Hawthorne). When Brant has broken under the last cocktail, she is free to marry Lord Hamilton, who proves himself very English by rigidly rejecting all conciliatory overtures. So Zelda jumps off the roof, giving a touch of finality to a diffused drama that was probably written to order and to formula in a hurry.

Inheritors. As the last in her repertory, Eva Le Gallienne revives Susan Glaspell's Inheritors, a play on true Americanism. For those who do not object to a lofty propaganda with their theatre, it offers tense, lucid drama. For others, it seems wordy. The first scene shows the farmer-pioneer, Silas Morton (Robert F. Ross), struggling against the materialism of his family who object to bequeathing their best hill to the state for the erection of a college that will preserve "the best that has been thought and said." But in 1879, Morton College is founded. By 1920, it has grown so that state appropriations are needed for further expansion. Senator Lewis advises the College president, descendant of the founder, to muffle the voice of radical Professor Holden (Sayre Crawley) if he expects government aid. This is done, but the president cannot throttle Madeline (Josephine Hutchinson), granddaughter of the founder, who insists that conscientious objectors ought not to be gaoled and that she has a right to say so, on Morton Hill especially. Deserted by her influential relatives, the girl is forced to choose between indictment on an espionage charge and retraction. She does the noble thing, suffers the fate of every good citizen who lifts eyes higher than the mob. It becomes increasingly clear that, in Josephine Hutchinson, Miss Le Gallienne has found a young actress of bright talent.

--Thou desperate pilot now at once run on Thy dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark!