Revival in Manhattan

The Circle of Chalk (produced by the Studio Theatre of the New School for Social Research) was adapted by the late German poet Klabund (Alfred Henschke) from a 13th-Century Chinese classic. (In 1925 it was a hit in Berlin with Actress Elisabeth Bergner, later in London with Hollywood Veteran Anna May Wong, and it appeared briefly in Manhattan.) It tells of a teahouse girl who marries a mandarin, only to fall afoul of his jealous No. 1 wife.This witch poisons the mandarin, bribes a judge to convict the girl of the murder and the theft of her own baby. At length she is rescued by a reforming young Emperor, who as a prince had met and loved her.

With an ideal production, the play might be a sort of animated Chinese screen portraying a charming, ancient tale of love triumphant over legal corruption. The Studio Theatre's revival has something of this quality, especially in the porcelain grace of the heroine, acted by little Dolly Haas, a German actress. But some of the actors lack her flair, with the result that the play provides mostly a rather precious kind of tedium.

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