Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-09-25
VERY now and then tho New h

VI 411CoCSA OdAAO, W1A2Si1
Z putters around more than
! any group preparing revo-
buttons, robots, and polite tea
parties on Shavian islands or no
f., where at all, delivers such a def
mite wallop to the theater in the
form of a boost upward that the
entire industry owes it, tempOrar-
lily, a living. While sometimes its
experiments are too noble to be
popular with the herd, and its
lingo too intellectual to be quite
comfortable, its average yearly
output is a definite stimulus to
the theater as an art, and at
least once during the season some
thing of real merit is apt to crop
up.
That something" came some
what ahead of time last Monday
night. AS revealed to first night
audience in Philadelphia, 1.-The
Good Earth" prospered as few
newborn dramas have. At its
finale it was given long and
lusty ovation. During it's pro-
erosion it was watched by a re-
spectful audience with absolute
and reverent silence That some
thing vital was being unearthed
from The Good Earth" was I'M
questionable. Nazimova'S first
entrance brought with it a kind
of a priori conception of the ex-
cellence that was to follow. Beauty
followed beauty, in line, in move
ment and in execution. The pic
ture of the man working on the
land with his wife, portrait rich
in the blues and the browns which
Artist SimonSon uses so effec-
lively, was but a part of a canvas
on which has been created one
of the more compelling dramas
of this or any other season.
A FEW of Philadelphia's critical
gentlemen limited that this
was perhaps not a play. That
its slow-paced drama lent itself
rather better to the printed page
than it does to the four walls Of
the theater. This may in part
be true. 1t is difficult to cut up
a long inspired sequence and
clamp it down to a smaller en-
vironment. Still, that the result
is a patchwork of particular
beauty, that its language is some
thing far out of the ordinary,
that its scenes in many cases
have power and its emotions
sufficient to melt the audience
into tears, is proof that if this
isn't a play it Is at least some
thing exceptional in the way of
entertainment.
There are many, of course, who
still believe that the theater
should be rough and climactic at
all times, and that if it doesn't
take it's spectators by the back
of their necks and give them a
good mental shaking before the
evening Is over, then 1t has falled
in it's art. Or again, in a lighter
vein. If it hasn't sprawled It's
audience out into the aiSles with
laughter, then it hasn't come up
to the mark set by so many "good"
plays.
What a good" play is, is a
question. If 1.-The Good Earth"
isn't, then neither was THE
Green Pastures" Both of them
are not, strictly speaking, written
in the correct" form. There IS
no violent suspense, no tremen-
dous climax, no definite problem
that has been solved. Yet 1.-THE
Cood Earth" is full of the theater.
Messrs. Owen and Donald Davis
have been as true to the book
as any dramatists could be. They
have heightened the character OF
O-Lan (NaZimova) broadened the
comedy of Wang Lungs father
(Henry Travers) and leSsened the
importance of Lotus. But they
have not changed the essential
spirit of the book-and they have
made It, probably, into more OF a
compact drama than many be-
lieved possible.
THIS work may not be per-
- feet play, but it is Theatre
art in such abundance as this
decade has not been overbur-
dened with. The scenic designs
Uee Simonson has created a
China that is severe and at the
same time colorfuD are stimulat-
ing to the eye; the scene changes
are swift and allow no mental
doldrums during their execution,
and when Nine. Nazimova reaches
O-Lan'S death scene, you are con-
scious that she is attaining
heights which she may never,