THREE GRIM PLAYS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 202, 23 May 1936, Page 23

THREE GRIM PLAYS

Propaganda Written for the Stage “Three Plays.” by Clifford Odets. (London: Gollancz). Clifford Odets is being hailed (vide the coloured cover) as one of the most brilliant of young American playwrights and in one reference the word “masterpiece” has been loosely used. Because Mr. Odets is daring and realistic, and i.s a master of American-Yiddish slang, it would be straining the verities to call his “Awake and Sing,” a masterpiece or even a near-masterpiece. It is a sordid domestic drama about a poor Hebrew family, who live in the Bronx and who never shift out of it. The language used is that of “Potash and Perlmutter,” but in a sinister sense rather than in a comedy vein, and there is a doubt whether audiences in this part of the world comprehend a good deal of it. There is a commendable vitality in the dialogue, the characterisation is strong and distinct, but of beauty there is naught. The dominant note is the utter sordidness of mean life in the Bronx. The horrible effort at romance is the bestial yearning of a one-legged man for the wife of his friend and its unpleasant termination. “Awake and Sing” might please New York audiences, because of the prototypes in the play, but one cannot imagine it succeeding with English audiences.

“Waiting for Lefty” strikes a note ot originality. It appears to be a straight-out propaganda play in favour of communism with a big C. Its originality consists in the play being a series of episodes thrown into a bright circle of light on the platform at a strike meeting. These scenes or episodes are superimposed on the strike meeting, so to speak, and right through each one, the circle of speakers on the platform are dimly visible as a background. Each episode stresses the hopelessness of the outlook of the worker in America, a frame of mind evidently born of the depression. As to the elegance of language—realism some people may call it—the following example is typical:—

“Joe (going mad because his wife threatens to leave him and the children without remorse or regret)—‘No, you lazy tart, no! Get the hell out of here! Go pick up that bull-thrower on the corner, ami stop at some cushy hotel down town. lie’s probably been coming hero every morning and laying you while I hacked my guts out!”

Grimmer and even more meaty is the play "Till the Day I Die,” another communistic play of the strongest order, dealing, with the gloves oil, with the alleged manner in which Nazi officials treat communists. If such ■things were true, it is a wonder that half Germany does not turn communistic, as, for calculated brutality, Christ’s treatment at Calvary wa.s nothing compared with the torture meted out to suspected enemies of the Nazi regime. One may be wrong, but there is a doubt as to whether the theatre should be used for straight-out propaganda respecting movements on which, there must always be sharply-divided opinion.. Being a little old-fashioned iu these matters, many regard the theatre as a place for intellectual and artistic entertainment —just that and no more. KEEPING THE DOCTOR AWAY “An Apple a Day,” by Sir William Arbuthnot Lane (London: Methuen). •Since the amount of medical literature which has issued from the press recently is only equalled by the desire for knowledge on the part of the general public, Sir William Arbuthnot Lane ■has been constrained to pen this short treatise on the healthy mode of life. “An Apple a Day” is divided into two parts, the first dealing with healthy development and the ways of avoiding disease, the second discussing modern ailments and their treatment. Any words of wisdom from such an illustrious medical man as Sir William are worthy of note, and all those who prefer to understand prevention of illness rather than cure will road this little book with interest and profit. MAN’S ROAD THROUGH LIFE “The Pillar in the Wilderness," by Benjamin John (London: Williams and Norgate). In an elaborate explanation, plentifully interspersed with' quotations from the .Scriptures and other works, liie author of this book sets out to trace the design of the universe and to show how various material signs combine together to point out to man his road through life ami his journey’s end. He begins with the earth and its evolution, continues with the founding of the first world civilisation and the house of Cain, speaks of the house of Seth and Druidism and its teaching, the Great Pyramid and its symbolical message, the history of Israel, the implications of Anglo-Israelism, and the high purpose of Britain in the plan of the Logos to prepare itself as the nucleus of Christ's < Kingdom on earth.

Winifred Iloltby left; 131,139. Her will appoints Miss Vera Brittain as her literary executor.