New Play in Manhattan

The Grey-Eyed People (by John D. Hess) was a two-tone play whose colors brutally clashed. It told of a suburban individualist who staged a hot-tempered crusade on behalf of a former Communist who ran afoul of the community. Part of the time the author--a veteran TV writer--seemed concerned with a pressing contemporary situation. The rest of the time he merely seemed concerned with what it could yield in laughs.

Some of his gags were clever enough, some of his scenes had the right farcical commotion for a different kind of play, and in Walter Matthau he had an engaging leading man. But the play, which closed at week's end after five performances, was far from expert on its own terms, and its terms were a little shabby anyhow. Playwright Hess seemed to have chosen his theme for no better reason than that it is in the air right now, and to have handled it as though it were going on the air.

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