Evening star., 1932-08-21

ton CT Domino" last week not
only marked the official opening
i Of the new dramatic season, but
was the forerunner of that on
rush of European plays which the local
managers annually prepare for US. New
York continues to be the most hospita-
BILE of theatrical capitals. Partially as
the result OF the magnates' delight in
Springtime travel, each April, May or
early June finds them securing London,
Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Budapest in
quest of masterpieces, and lest they
overlook something of Importance, there
is never any lack of play salesmen,
armed with credentials from abroad,
ready to sell them, upon their return,
anything important that they may have
neglected Originally this passion for
producing foreign works arose. no
doubt from the fact that the native
playwrights were unable to satisfy the
local requirements. Now 1t comes
chiefly from genuine interest in the
representative dramas from the trans
atlantic world centers.
This season, as usual, 1t will be. OF
course, the English plays, which will be
mainly represented here. That Is the
natural result of the similarity in Ian
guage and, as much as our slightly su-
perciliouS cousins across the sea hate
to confess it, in viewpoint. Obviously
it Is far simpler to bring over a play
which does not have to be translated
save In the speeches wherein the char
acters are supposed to be talking Amer
lean slang, and in which production and
acting can follow the original with rea-
sonable fidelity-than it is to go into
the complexities of an adaptation from
an entirely alien tongue. 1t Is likely,
though, that the predominance Of Eng
lish over continental plays on the New
York stage this year will be due less
to that obvious fact than to the ines
capable truth that the London theater,
for all its frailties, IS more vigorous than
any other European theater, with the
very definite exception Of the Russian.
y
nESPITE the fine and exciting gusto
~ of the current Muscovite drama,
however, it seems doubtful that there
will be any great number of Soviet plays
in town this Fall When you recall the
tremendous American interest in the
affairs of the land of the hammer and
sickle, an interest which results in max
ing almost any book about Russia
threat to the best seller lists and eStab-
fishes any one who has passed week
in Moscow as a successful lecturer, pro-
feSSional or amteur on the subject, this
absence seems rather surprising. In
addition, 1t Is curious, In view Of the
general excellence of the Soviet plays.
1t would seem to me, for example, that
certainly THE Days of the Turbins,"
romantic and colorful melodrama of the
civil wars in the Ukraine, and Fear"
brilliant psychological play, discussing
with real understanding the important
problem of the plight Of the intellec-
tural in the proletarian state, would be
of interest here.
At last critical, as well as probably
a popular, success would, am sure be
met by transportation of the Bolshe-
vik version of Hamlet" with the hith-
erto melancholy Dane as sly and
realistic plotter for a throne, and the
previously downtrodden Ophelia as an
amorous and alcoholic fapper, but with
the Elizabethan spirit of the play some
how miraculously retained. At the mo-
ment, though, it seems likely that the
only work even dealing with Russia to
be shown here will be Herman Shum-
Inns production of comedy which by
the time it arrives on Broadway will
hardly still be known as "Oh, Rare
Buck Thomas" but which, anyway, Is
the work of Samuel Spewack, who was
in Russia for the World in 1922, or
thereabouts. In view Of the widespread
popularity of Walter Duranty and
Maurice Hindus as interpreters Of Rus
sia, 1t Is surprising to hear that a