MR. ST. JOHN ERVINE “TURNED DOWN”

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 226, 20 June 1936, Page 23

MR. ST. JOHN ERVINE “TURNED DOWN”

New Full-length Play

“People oi Our Class,” a play iu acts by St. John Ervine (London. Allen and Unwin). . . At least Mr. St. John Ervine ns; refreshingly honest when be says tna this play has been refused by eie y manager in England America to whom it has been submitted. It is toe first full-length play by this gifted author since his “First Mrs. I-raser,. ot happv memory. On reading the P 1 Y one can readily understand why it has been declined, for Mr. Ervine, foUowJn* the way of all flesh, has flung off the shackles of convention and written a play the language of which is as frank and free, perhaps more so. than that of the Restoration plays, in that ne leaves nothing to the imagination. In order to enchain the attention, Mr. Ervine wastes pages in explaining why his play has been refused; how he submitted it to George Bernard Shaw, and •that eminent person re-wrote the whole of the opening scene for him. But even that has not saved the play from the condemnation it deserved. It is the disgusting frankness of the dialogue that repels. Some people are apt to excuse that sort of thing, by saying that it reflects modern life; but there are lots of things in life that there is no need of in plays. The play deals with the affairs of the family of Gen.eral March. C.M.G., D. 5.0., a stickler for the preservation of class society. Life in the country with tlie same round of tame trivialities finds the daughter Shena in revolt. Realising that her family is in the process of decay, that her brother Edward ig a failure, that both Jennifer, and her cousin, Geraldine Morley, are among the as far as men are concerned, she decides that something has to be done. She is loved by and admires a young man not of “our class,” a chemist’s assistant, Henry Hayes, in the nearby town, "because be has guts,” as Shena bluntly puts it, but she decides to give London a chance, and becomes the secretary of a doctor. As that experience does not work out'too well, she suddenly returns home, and announces to her family that she is going to marry Henry. There is a flare up; the general Is tremendously indignant, and will hear none of it. Henry’s father, a butcher, also resents the marriage, as be Moes not think that Shena is the girl for his son. So the two old fellows plot to prevent the marriage, but Shena and Henry plot better. The general has refused to give Shena the money her aunt left to be paid when she is thirty years of age; so in order to put the squeeze on, and probably to gratify other yearnings, Shena deliberately (one could scarcely say cold-bloodedly) becomes an expectant mother, and then refuses to marry the father (Henry Hayes') until the general pays over the money. During the play Edward, the March soil, gives way to drink. He becomes a soppy wreck; but the third act sees him sensationally regenerated through the Salvation Array—another shock for “people in our class.” This incident is made a high light. Edward has, apparently entered a Salvation ring in the street, uproariously drunk and raising Cain, when suddenly he is floored flat by the apparition of the Lord, and sees a great glory about him. It has to be remembered that Mr. Ervine wrote the last life of General Booth, and believes earnestly in such miracles. Indeed, in justification of the incident he relates in the preface similar cases of violent reform in the apparently hopeless. That i's as it may be. but it is a pity that his association with Army people did’ not help the author to better taste in language. One is inclined to agree with Mrs. March when s'he says "men and women have managed to get along in other times without all this gabbling and frankness.” “People of Our Class” is certainly one of the plays unpleasant, yet-admirable in craftsmanship. One wonders how Mr. Ervine would have reviewed such a play, say ten years ago, had it been written by another.