The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-05-23
Chamber of Commerce Wayygd Sign Painters Correspondent Write
MA
Amdreyev's "Walk of the
Dogs" Worth Seeing

"THE Waltz of the Dogs" at the
Forty-eighth Street Theatre is a
gloomy drama, luridly unwelcome to
the sort of people who usually patron
ize Broadway theatres, simply be-
cause the most of these people are
trying to soak up the prodigeous sur
plus value and unearned increment of
recent years, are engaged in kind
of polite but perpetual orgy, and don't
like the old Egyptian custom of pa
rading a coffin at the feast.
Andreyev, in a little appreciation
of his own work, which the manage
ment kindly publishes in the program,
says "'The Waltz of the Dogs rep
resents the most hidden, cruel mean
ing of tragedy, which renounces the
meaning and reason of human exist
ence. This is a responsible work. :"
Andreyev was one of that large
group of Russian intellegentsia who
functioned as irritating lice on the
back of the already putrescent tho
only half dead body of tsarist upper
class society. Through Bloody
Laughter" "The Dilemma" ETC., he,
like his fellows, chewed away the silky
hair of the beast, and showed the rot
ting flesh beneath. Undoubtedly
useful task. But when the guns of
the revolution shot the thing to pieces,
the poor little lice had hard time of
it, and were undoubtedly much upset.
They didn't understand anything at
all that was happening, and Andreyev,
for one, in his exile among the White
Guard emigrees, simply stuck to his
original thesis, and broadened the field
to include all life. 1t is significant
that the only proletarian characters
in "The Waltz of the Dogs" are even
more despicable than the precise"
cold bank official hero, who dis
charges his clerks ruthlessly for err
rors and unpunctuality, and whose de-
terioration, mentally, morally and
physically is the main theme of the
play.
The thieving, taking Servant
Ivan of the play, if they be taken
as types, are probably simply the in
suits of resentful playwright, who
hates to think about the Red Army I
The degenerating upper classes
shown in the play are the people of
the playwright's own circle, and his
story of their corruption is, on the
face of it, something like a confes-
sion.
Now for the play, and Andreyev's
philosophy. 1t is really very simple.
Henry Tile, the bank official, ruth
less employer but otherwise imprac-
tical, full of conventions which he
thinks are high ideals, is thrown off
his balance when Elizabeth, his fl
ance deserts him on the eve of the
wedding to marry richer man. He
enters upon long course of dissipa-
ton, spends his nights drinking with
one of those sloppy, helpless and
hopeless characters of which the pre-
revolutionary Russian writer's were so
fond, one Alexandrov, nicknamed
Feklusha. He boasts to Feklusha that
he has stolen from his employers, and
that he is going away disguised to
enjoy heavenly riches, but in the last
moment of the last act, he shoots
himself instead ~-
His death just then probably comes
as misfortune to his younger broth
er Carl, nasty little fellow with col
lege boy manners, who has made
Elizabeth his mistress, and is. plan
ming with Feklusha to kill Henry as
soon as they get hold of an insurance.
policy in favor of Carl. They have.
already prepared suicide note. to.
leave by Henry's body, willing Ser
want Ivan 500 roubles. But Henry
who knows nothing of their scheme,
gives up the ghost before the policy