The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-11-14
The World of
the Theatre
Broadway Theatre Technique
BY HAROLD EDGAR

the Plymouth, differentiate them
selves from the money drawing
rnediocrity-"Double Door," Sailor,
Beware"-which distinguishes this
season. "The Green Bay Tree"
stands out by virtue of its careful
direction, Her Masters Voice" by
virtue Of good actors and a pleasant
script. For those interested in the
technique of the theatre there is
something to be learned from these
productions. Being distinctly above
the average they reveal the nature
OF the Broadway theatre better than
a treatise.
''The Green Bay Tree" is one of
those daring" plays dealing with
delicate" situation which when seri-
cusly examined prove themselves
completely fake. If you like or if you
are in the know-that is, converse
tionally familiar with Havelock Ellis,
Freud, Proust, or simply with Broad
way theatrical tle-tattle-the play
is about the making of a homosexual
out of weak-willed boy; or if you
prefer an Interpretation little less
sophisticated" the play is a moral
tale about the breaking down of a
young mans character through the
softening influence of luxury. From
either point Of view, the play is bare
ly comprehensive, since the char
acters, though trickily decked out
with theatrical traits, are never pre-
Sented so as to be understood as
three-dimensional human beings
and were 1t made understandable the
play would still be fundamentally in
consequential. Then why the fuss?
The answer, from the New York
Times angle, is the plays literacy--
the characters speak the Kings Eng
ashland the production.
What about this production2 1t is
suave-set and lit in almost dis
tressingly) good taste; it is clear
every point the director wished to
make is seen as it were in a tiny
frame; it is dramatic-an Importance
as Of something extremely signifi-
cant and highly charged with emo
ton is lent to each detail of action;
it is theatrical-the director has not
been afraid to allow his climaxes the
flash and excitement of conflict in
the most picturesquely explosive
sense. This is not said ironically.
These are theatrical assets we find in
few Broadway shows, and only
really capable director like Jed Har-
ris possesses them. But when all
credit is given, what indifference of
feeling, what emptiness of idea, what
lack Of true personality are betrayed
here. Cleverness, yes, astuteness in
the calculation of effects, maybe; but
how removed from genuine love of
life, passion Of thought, fire and
courage of conviction or any Of the
essential attributes of art. All we can
admire here is mechanism, mech
anisrn to persuade the audience that
what it is seeing is really entertain
ing and worth while. But one soon
has done admiring these little tricks
Of the trade-and we leave the show
with a sense Of having been cheated,
with a growing suspicion that if this
is the best the theatre has to give,
the theatre has become the least re-
warding of the arts. This technique
that we begin by approving, we real
ize in the end, is the kind that subtly
eliminates all traces of meaning from
the playwrights script, all life from
the actors performances. Like the
food in an expensive grocery display,
this technique is designed to catch
the eye, but offers nothing to our
vital appetites.
Far less pretentious but much more
authentic is Her Masters Voice."
very slight, middle-class comedy by
an author with an almost pre-bour-
geois touch Of aristocratic removal.
The tone Of Miss Glare RUNNERS
plays remind one of something that
might have been written by an 18th
century lady in England or in CO.
lonial America. She has a humorous
appreciation OF the ordinary oddities
of human character, and she writes
about typical middle-class situations
in a way that makes one think that
although she profits richly from the
bourgeois order of society she is not
very much engaged in it. This combi-
nation produces type of play that
is a little boring to the present writ
err, as it would be to most readers Of
the Daily Worker, yet it would be
false to deny It's talent or to fail to
observe that despite its wholly artless
manner it reveals more definite and
organic personality than, let us say,
O'Neills "Ah, Wilderness!"
This play, moreover is well acted
by cast Of expert performers. But
here again we are confronted with
the paradox of the Broadway the
atre. The total impression made by
this very light, pastel-like. comedy
is almost one Of heaviness and crud-
ity! The reason for this is lack of
unified style. Roland Young plays
mentally, Laura Hope Crewes plays
with effective old-fashioned theatre
cal archness and pointedness, Eliza
beth Patterson plays with honely
realism and Frances Fuller plays
with that non-theatricai simplicity
which is the Broadway naturalism of
today.
Broadway theatre technique, then,
in the majority of its better examples,
tends to develop q moderately arrest
ing surface without life, that is,
real creative purpose, or to exhibit
individual talents whose separate
abilities may be applauded but which
are rarely co-ordinated to form lu-
cid, satisfactory whole. There is no
creative way in the theatre except