New Plays in Manhattan

Napi. Saxons imagine the Gauls to be the sexiest people; the Gauls modestly tender the palm to the Ottomans. It is natural, therefore, that Playwright Julius Berstl, a German, should have pictured Napoleon as a lecherous little character beloved by many beautiful women. It is also natural that the dramatist should have imagined that any other Frenchman who looked exactly like Napoleon would possess the same endearing attributes. The other Frenchman in Herr Berstl's play is small, goatlike Ernest Truex, who was last seen stamping around and fidgeting for Hortence Alden in Lysistrata.

Napoleon's councillors, fearing an attempt on the Emperor's life, discover Mr.

Truex in a Parisian notions store, prevail upon him to double for the Corsican. Mr. Truex's first job is to tell a comely actress (Peggy Shannon) that he no longer loves her. But although she sees through the impersonation, she becomes enamored of the substitute, makes him spend the night. Josephine (Frieda Inescort) also falls under his spell. When Mr. Truex finally returns to the mercantile business, he is assured of the patronage of the whole court and Comedie Franchise. Says he: "If my strength holds out we'll have the biggest store in Paris." Picked for pulchritude, the ladies of the cast are not all expert mimes, but little Mr. Truex, with his hair plastered down over his eyes and his hand thrust into his waistcoat, is splendid.

Miracle at Verdun. What would happen if the 13,000,000 War dead should suddenly push back the mould from their faces, rise in their tatters from the grave? There would be 13,000,000 more mouths for the world to feed, 13,000,000 extra jobs to be found, 13,000,000 social readjust- ments to be made. Would the world which now mourns them welcome back the brave from their sleep? With such portentous questions as these is Miracle at Verdun, the Theatre Guild's latest opus, concerned. To produce its ambitious piece, the Guild has employed a triple cinema screen, three sound-film projectors, seven scenes, 17 loudspeakers, a company of 50 actors.

At the Petit Cemetiere at Verdun, on the eve of Armistice Day, 1934, a crowd of tourists is gathered. As they drift away, one of their number remains. Darkness falls about him. In the increasing gloom a great voice is heard, promising that the 20-year-old prayers of the bereaved shall be answered, that the fallen shall be resurrected, permitted to return to their homes. When the soldiers have crawled out of their graves and the news of the miracle is broadcast over the earth, pan- demonium is loosed. Capitalists protest their presence on economic grounds, churchmen declare the resurrection unholy, since the men are human and lustful, statesmen argue that there is no surplus land available for the 13,000,000 weird newcomers. Commerce and communica- tions collapse, councils are called, panic reigns. Throughout the nations the cry goes up: "Death to the resurrected!" Unwanted, feared, hated, the heroes learn that their wives have found living men to comfort them, their children do not remember them. The dead are finally prevailed upon to go back to their holes.

Author of this startling play is the late Hans Chlumberg, an Austrian cavalryman during the War. On the night that Miracle at Verdun opened in Leipzig last October, he sank into unconsciousness, died without knowing of the show's success. The son of a military man, a one-time military student himself, he loathed war, wrote his play in protest against it. The Guild, under Director Herbert J. Biberman, has given Miracle at Verdun a skillful presentation. It is overlong (three hours), lets one down a little at the end. but is a tremendously interesting and audacious piece of modern theatrical technique.

Gray Shadow. A man who has made a practice of murdering folk and claiming their insurance money is mysteriously called the Gray Shadow. When an eccentric recluse is quietly interred in an English country churchyard, his absent ward, the insurance company's detectives and finally the police suspect foul play. They study the circumstances surrounding his burial and in doing so they find the Gray Shadow. The proceedings are not very scarey.

The House Beautiful is a new offering by Channing Pollock, the Upton Sinclair of the stage. Incorrigibly didactic, Mr. Pollock is not only a playwright, but a poet and parson as well. Like his other plays (The Fool, The Enemy, Mr. Money-penny), The House Beautiful is packed with homilies, but in presenting them Preacher Pollock has stretched his imagination to the limit, as if he realized that he must keep up with the experimental work of the younger boys of the theatre. Hence his play--against which the only criticism is that it is too worthy--makes use of gramophonic bugle calls, clock ticks in the darkness to denote passage of time, mysterious snatches of offstage dialog. The play should stimulate many a pulpit and women's club.

The Text: "And behold there was a very stately palace before him, the name of which was Beautiful, and it stood by the highway side"--Pilgrim's Progress. The Sermon: Archibald Davis (James Bell, who went to the electric chair in The Last Mile) and his wife Jennifer (pretty Mary Phillips of Oh Promise Me, a heroine at last) are very honorable and romantic people who buy a house in a miserable little New Jersey subdivision. As the years roll by, Archibald's scruples prevent him from making any money. He is too honest to sell his firm's questionable bonds or to wink at his town's zoning law (he had been made mayor) or to turn a penny for himself. This last act of nobility loses him his job. Meantime, Preacher Pollock has introduced a number of Arthurian pantomimes which dress up his insignificant hero's and heroine's deeds, allegorically picturing Archibald and Jennifer as defending their little castle's integrity, keeping the house beautiful. When they both die, their reward is in having produced a son who is very honorable, too, only he makes it pay.

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