The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-04-10

swers to our problems, not mystic
soothing syrup. O'Neill is in deadly
earnest, but. he seems caught in the
mystic wave that is creeping into
American literature.
Lawson's Nirvana.
TOHN HOWARD LAWSON has had
e a more virulent attack. This man
is the author Of professional" pro-
duced last season, and as yet the
most powerful, most SINCERE, most
stimulating and ground-breaking play
that has grown out OF the rich, rank
soil of the American labor struggle.
Read the book, if you haven't seen
the play; it is really classic.
Lawson's newest play, "Norvana,7
was produced a few weeks ago in
Greenwich Village. 1t was badly pro-
duced; the actors gave off faint
flavor of ham. Few American actors
are convincing in any play where the
characters are really intelligent and
modern.) The play was written in
the mood of Dostoevsky, wild, lurid.
rending, epileptic and impossible &C
count of the God-seeking of group
Of American intellectuals. The hero
searches for a faith in bourgeois
America; and as there is none, ex-
cept the national belief in the eagle
on the dollar, he goes stumbling for
ward to some wierd electromagnetic
god, who is finally revealed to him
and to us by a ludicrous Christian
Science miracle at the last curtain.
Lawson's attempt at truth was mag
nifcent. He was trying desperately
to break thru the barbed-wire stock
ade that hens the American intel
lectuals into common compound
with their enemies, the sterile Bah
bits. But he failed.
Lawson has wit, he has dramatic
skill second only to O'Neill, he has
passion, sincerity, fine cool brains,
youth, courage-he has everything
but he cannot break thru the bour-
geois philosophy. He has hammered
no philosophy out for himself, and has
to go god-seeking.
His play was a magnificent failure,
and it should have been an even more
magnificent success. This Lawson has
the stuff of a world playwright in him.
Only O'Neill is his master in this
country. But he is doomed If he con-
tinues on the path to Nirvana. He
must go back to the realities of the
West Virginia miners of his last play;
he must stick to the earth, where he
is strong.
Goat Song.
FNHE Goat Song, by Franz Werfel,
l. one of this seasons importations
OF the latest fashionable foreign mod
els by the Theater Guild of New York,
was also a blend of mysticism and
revolution.
Revolution-among vague foreign
peasants, some three centuries ago, in
a mythical country, not America.
Revolution-dolled up in pretty
Maxfield Parrish settings, with charm
ings groupings, and NOBODY gets nurt-
Revolution-sprung from the sick
subjective brain of a student, instead
of from the need of the masses.
Revolution-symbolized by a mon
ster who has been pent for years in
a cellar. (And why such a symbol?
Surely the monster is capitalism.)
Revolution-not something real, not
something that cuts into the lives Of a
New York audience, but something in
a theater. Something ending In Sun
day school bible lessons. Hlea
There were great moments In the
play; and perhaps New York audi
ence cannot digest anything like
strong red meat in the way OF revo-
luton. Maybe this is the limit.
But l would like to see the Theater
Guild put on a revolutionary play
about the New York garment workers,
with real workers massed on the
picket line. New York GODS pounding