Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-13
Y TIA JoHAAN's performance In

TIA JOHAANS performance In
"Machinal" was one Of the out
standing bits Of last season, and
L. her temperance in "Troyka,"
an adaptation from the Hunga-
rian Of Imre Fazekas, was awaited nat
urally with interest. Unhappily, the
new piece Is dull entertainment COM
pared with Sophie Treadwell's tragedy,
and Miss Johaan, although excellent as
far as she goes, suffers In consequence.
The scene is a Russian political pri-
son camp on Sakhalin Island Siberia, in
those strange hours that Immediately
followed the outbreak Of the March
Russian revolution. Men who had been
slaves for years suddenly found them
selves Free" only to discover for such,
at least, Is the authors premise) that
life itself, the new life they had made
for themselves as prisoners, had forged
for them new chains
Three men were in love with the same
woman. There was Senior, the ex-
colonel, who had been in prison for 10
years. Semion had q wife and children
back In Moscow, and he chung to the
idea that was left Of them, not realizing
that 1t was only an illusion and that
his real life was with Natascha and
that she was his real" wife.
In the same cabin with Senior and
Hamlet-like young doctor Of philosophy
who had thought little Of women until
he was shut up In the same log hut
with q young and attractive one who
mothered him almost as solicitously as
If he. and Senior were In the same
relation toward her. Ivan was mad
about the girl, but he was q sensible
man Of honor, and lived on IN torment
without telling his secret.
Then there was the dashlng young
captain in charge Of that section Of
the prisoners. He, too, was crazy about
the girl and tried in every way to dazzle
and flatter her and finally, when the
smash-up came, to get her to go away
with him.
Out Of this triangle and the bewil-
dered, groaning background OF Gagged
and half-mad men the melodrama is
made. It moves slowly and turgidly,
dragging out its dreary length like o
sort of dull toothache. Ivan tries to
murder the young captain to save Sc
mion, as he says. from having his wom-
an stolen from him, but more than that,
perhaps, because Of his own passion for
the girl and his hatred Of the man
whom he fears may win her. There Is
a court-martial which Is interrupted by
the news that the revolution has broken
out In Petersburg and Moscow, and
that all the prisoners are free. And
once they find themselves free, Ivan
loses control Of himself, and after an
all.night vigil In which he and Senior
sit watching each other while NataScha
sleeps in the next room, he kills his
own friend.
At the last, when all or at least many
Of the prisoners are revealed az still liv-
ing In chains Of their own making,
Natascha, still faithful, in her doglike
way, to the man with whom she has
been living, and thinking that he has
gone on without saying good-by, trails
apparently the only way out, and to 60
Of with the young captain.
The piece has effective moments, bui
Its movement in general Is sluggish,
and 1t gives the impression not so much
Of an original drama as Of something
arranged from what might have been q
novel.
MANN PAGES new comedy. blouse
Ava Afire," Is in q variety Of keys, In
cluding broad farce and touch Of
musical comedy, but underneath this
farcical surface is . straight" idea
that young married people, in their des-
ceSsion and make a home as good as
they think they ought to have, waste
some of the best years Of their lives
sometimes by leaving no time and no
money for play" And by play" the
author doesn't mean cocktail parties
and bridge, but a reasonable amount of
travel and leisure.
The piece starts with the burning of
the Elliotts' house at Rockport, N. j.