The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-10-23
BY E. STEPHEN KARNoT
ARMOURED TRAIN 1859, a play in
scenes, by Vsevolod IvanOv. In
ternational Publishers. rs cents.

It's curious play, this Armoured
Train 1859, by Vsevolod Ivanov. It's
curious because, by all the accepted
axioms of dramaturgy, it ought to
be a bad play-but it isn't q bad
play. In fact, it's a good play-by
all the accepted axioms of the
theatre! AS a script, its flimSy,
schematic, the joints Of the dramatic
mechanism painfully visible through
the poorly clothed character studies.
AS a show, theatricclly speaking, it's
wow" It's a directors holiday.
Here are uprisings, conspirators, civil
war, heroic sacrifices-the play is
jammed full OF what could be rip
Snortin' melodrama. But it isn't. 1t
is a drama that rings true, simply
and powerfully.
The very gauntness of its form
brings to the reader something of
the atmosphere of those lean, tense
days Of the Civil War In Soviet ST.
IBERIA, when emotions were stretched
tight over the hardened framework
of a single all-powerful idea-to
wrest the land and factories from the
death-grip Of the whites" and to
drive out the interventionist foreign
forces.
This is the theme and substance
of the play, and it is this theme and
substance that makes the play
Soviet classic, despite its formal
shortcomings. In the course of eight
short scenes, we go through typical
phase Of the civil war period, receiV-
ing vivid snapshot impressions of
a series Of characters whose relation
ships symbolic the essence of the
class forces in conflict during that
bitter period succeeding the October
Revolution.
For instance, IN the very first
scene, we find the white" officer,
NizelaSov, typical in his futility, in
decision and utter hopelessness III.
the commander Of Armoured Train
1859, goes into the taiga to fight
the Reds with a mock bravery born
Of cynicism, desperation and despair.
The people around him follow true
to form. There Is the blockheaded
loyalty OF Obab, the lieutenant, and
the uncomprehending panic of the
doomed bourgeoisie-as Nizelasov, in
a moment Of cynical clarity bitterly
exclaims, ''The cheap little canary
in the cheap little cage shall be the
emblem of peace I shall struggle to
defend"
At the opposite pole we have Yer
shinin, the peasant leader. Slow
moving; illiterate, cautious, but
deeply wise, possessed of boundless
passion and love for his soil. Yer
chinin is reluctant to join the rising
Of the workers to meet the invaders
until he learns that his village
and farm and children have been
destroyed by the interventionist
armies. Then Vershinin, peasant
and leader of peasants, rises In
mighty wrath, the wrath which spells
the final doom of the Whites"
Nizelasov, the Armoured Train and
all the other symbols of the counter
revolutionary forces For the peasants
under Vershinin waylay the Ar
incurred Train (Sing WI, Chinese
peasant, in simple, unheroic ges-
ture stretches himself across the
tracks, stopping 1t with his life),
capture it, and bring it TO the aid
of the factory workers who are be-
seiging the fortress Of the city. Their
combined forces forecast success at
the closing curtain, the play ending
on note Of mingled Joy and sorrow
(sorrow for the death of the Com