The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-10-03
7 he World
of the Theatre
By HAROLD EDGAR
The Group Theatre.

THE Group Theatre is an important
unit for two reasons: it is the only
| professional theatre in New York
organized as a collective, that is, as
theatre in the complete sense of the
word; and, like many activities Of the
lower middle-class intellectual world
today, it manifests recognizable
movement toward the left"
The most significant and conclusive
aspect of the Group Theatres work
/ at present is the technical one. From
its theatrical method, which applies
to the American actor the basic pre-
cepts of the Stanislavsky system
especially as developed and enriched
by the Moscow Art Theatre Studios
under Vachtangov, all who are in
terested in true thestre-and parti-
cularly in q revolutionary theatre
have much to learn.
1t is necessary to stress, however.
that this assimilation of the doctrines
of the great Russian theatre is not
merely a question Of pedagogy. Other
organizations, notably the American
Laboratory Theatre, have taught the
principles Of the Stanislavsky system.
They were neither able to survive, nor
to impress any audience with the
advantages of their methods. The
| Group Theatre has a company of
actors talented enough to engage any
audience, intelligent enough to under
stand the value of real work, honest
enough to want to develop not only
their commodity personalities but
| their intrinsic abilities, courageous
| enough to maintain periods of dis
| couragement and indifferent results.
| The Group Theatre has directors Of
substantial theatrical experience. It
has the aim of saying something in
the theatre, and the will to learn a
technique whereby what it has TO say
may be said in appropriately effective
theatrical terms. Finally, it believes
that the best theory Is practice, and
the most eloqoent program In the
theatre is what the audience can be
led to see, feel and understand from
the action on the stage. The result
of its two years effort, despite re-
tards and setbacks, is that 1t is EN-
barking upon its most ambitious sea-
son Immediately after a good many
funeral services had been performed
over 1t.
The content Of the Group Theatres
theological tendencies is not subject
for abstract argument. It's list OF
plays, which in the past included
Claire and Paul Sifton's "1931--," the
first unemployment play to reach
Broadway, and which promises new
plays by John II. Lawson, John Dos
Passos, Melvin Levy, and Keene
Wallis adaptation Of Hauptmann's
"Weavers" for the future, must be
taken as the final test Of its progress
or It's lapse In this respect. Each play
must be especially examined and crit
icized from this viewpoint. Such crit
icisn should be comparative In rela-
ton to now-existing conditions both
of society and of the theatre, and alb
solute in relation TO the ultimate goal
of a fine drama, the drama of q
classics society, which, in terms Of
the present, must be revolutionary
drama.
The Group Theatres present pro-
duction, "Men in White at the
Broadhurst Theatre Is chiefly note
worthy for the fact that it is the first
which has brought the Groups coll
lective technique prominently and
successfully to public notice. Other
Group observation-disclosures ''The
House of Connolly" and 1881" -
have been remarkable for their en-
semble or teamwork but there were
considered special plays. Men m
White" reveals this technique-which
is not trick that can be applied in-
Discriminatory and at will whenever
desired, but an accumulative theatre
cal discipline for the organization and
the individuals within it--in a play of
a more popular nature. The result Ia
what the reviewers call a good show,
Men in White which deals with
doctors and the life of a hospital, is
dramatically based on the conflict in
young inferno between personal
happiness and the scientific pursuit
Of medicine. Despite this the play is
not distinguished by any particular
social comment or definite intellec-
tual value. And whatever its emo
tional quality may be, it derives
mainly from its vivid subject-matter
and unusual milieu as seen through
the simple intelligence and devotion
to the task with which the Group
actors perform their various duties.
The production simply marks the
first box-office success of a sound
theatrical technique achieved through
the most valid principles of collective
work in the theatre. We hope that
the Group Theatre, having found a
modicum of recognition for its meth
DDS, advances toward an increasingly
important employment Of them.