The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-02
~ DRAMA III
Paper-Mache Roast and Stuffing
Sidney Towards Two Plays at the Theatre Guild
Look Good, But They Aren't Filling
Reviewed by HARBOR ALLEN.

a CCORDING to certain critics,
"A Eugene ONeilp solitary grandeur
as Americas only dramatist is al
ready challenged if not adumbrated
by Sidney Howard. There is no deny
ing Howard knows his theatre. Be-
fore his two plays at the Theatre
Guilds supplementary playhouse, the
spectator sits tense, swooped along
by sheer craftsmanship. Climaxes
rise and burst like sky-rockets. Dia-
logue crackles, glitters. Characters
unfold like glowing pyrotechnic
roses. Niagaras of passion pour over
the footlights. It is a perfect spec
tacle. Inside the theatre, you are
satisfied. You feel that you have
seen something great and thrilling
and human.
1t is when you go outside that YOU
begin to doubt. Outside, in the brass
reality of Broadway, you feel hungry.
What seemed to be a feast was set
before you, you ate heartily, and vet
you are hungry. You are seldom
hungry after you have Toasted on
ONeill. ONeill gives you meat and
bread-raw and coarse, maybe, but
filling. What is the matter, you ask.
with Sidney Howard? Is he only
surfing? Is his roast only a papier-
mache roast, such as you see in the
grill window on lower Broadway? Is
his sky-rocket just an inflated roman
candle, and his Niagara just sput-
tering gunpowder?
Harsh as it may sound, I suspect
that Howard is merely clever fire
works. He has his virtues. He knows
how to set his stage. He knows how
to bring down his curtain. He knows
how to keep you on the edge of your
seat. He knows how to add the pop
ular modern touch. He knows how
to write ia piece bien faite"-the
well-made play. And a well-built
house in city of crealing, clumsy,
tumbling theatrical shanties is not to
be sneezed at. Even if it is built of
secondhand lumber and painted ~
a eamouflage artist.
All this refers especially to "The
Silver Cord" "Ned McCobb's Daugh-
ter" humping old-fashioned melo-
drama, CLOSED over with q little
enamel of bootleggers, stirs you less.
Here the vanishing process is so APP
parent that you feel less ANNOYED.
"The Silver Cord" arouses your ire
because it seems such a shame to see
a man who might hurl thunder con-
tent to flash electric signs.
"The Silver Cord" is the story of
an "old-fashioned" mother who loves
her sons so much that she cannot
bear to see them grow up and away
from her. Nemesis comes in the
shape of scientific young wife who
applies the Freudian scapel to the
whole family. She succeeds in sever
ing the umbilical cord of the elder
son, her husband. The younger re-
mains mentally attached to his moth
er's navel. The diagnosis and the
operation take place in a parlor and
bedroom. The Job is done with a
certain air of bravado, but with gen.
tility for all that.
What originality the play pretends
to is purely deceptive 1t is old Ibsen
in new bottle. Sudermann was
writing "Tendenz-Dramen" when I !
was still in school, Damaged
Goods" was very bold about "sex
problems" when l was just learning
what theatre looked like. Freud |
has been prompting from the wings
a good many years. Tear the new
tissue wrapping off 1.-THE Silvcr
Cord"-as well as "Ned McCobb's
Daughter'-and you find an old