The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-12-18
Tight Britches'
Powerful Drama
Taken From Life
Presentation on Saturday
Night Is Revealing of
Mountain Life


mountain drama which has just
come from the pen of Hubert
Hayes. collaborating with John
fainter Foote and is slated for
Broadway production following
the tremendous impression its
several Asheville performances
created, came to HendersOnville
Saturday night under the aus
pieces of the American Legion.
Widely praised by the layman in
theatrical matters as well as
those who perfOrce have sat out
many dramatic entertainments
over many years as a duty,
Tight Britches was not, could
not have been a disappointment
to any who were capable of judg-
ing dramatic values in Saturday
nights audience.
Concededly made of materials
at hand and drawn from actual
| ity Tight Britches" more than is
usually the case. when the now
we'll worn phrase is used, is said
to be, in fact, a transcript OF
life. One may live with noun
tain people at his door all his
life time and if he h not taken
pains to understand them they
will forever remain a stranger to
him. So, with the judgment al
ready passed. and the native
source and contact of material, 1t
is easy to affirm. and to accept
that this is an honest presenta-
| ton of the lives that are lived so
close to us, and yet so distant for
lack of first hand contact and
the befuddling influence of the
average mountain play or story
built on the tradition of author
ship without first-hand knowl-
edge.
Tight Britches" is life in the
raw. 1t is, accepting that the
truth has been told, pure realism.
1t is filled with the humor and
tragedy of both character and
situation.
There is no softening of char
acter. no toning down is appre-
ciable for technical purposes. The
people in this story of boy who
aSpired to be preacher, but was
shot to death by the father of a
girl who had allured him, a naive
allurement, but which neverthe-
less resulted in an illegitimate
child. is presented through the
medium of people who are all in
; dividualists, and it is difficult to
Judge. just as the play prog
resSes, whether Aunt Vistie Ed
ney, played by Anna Lee Styles,
the energetic, dominant member
of a family household without a
mother, Ulys Palmer, the youth
! aspiring to become a preacher,
played by Hubert Hayes. or Sallie
Tabor the seductive nemesis of
Palmer, played by Leona Trant-
ham, holds the lead. All played
their parts convincingly. Fact is,
these parts just about play them
| selves.
John Hunter as Brad Palmer,
father of Ulys; Paul Craig as the
country doctor; and Nat Fried
man as the American, peddler and
peace Justice, were all excellent
in their roles. Lou Cabe, the
part of the girl who had been to
college was played effectively
and deity by Katherine Parks;
Veatrice and Orville Ponder
rounded out a most gratifying
group of characterizations in the
role of parents of Sallie Tabor.
Taking the embryo preacher as
the leading character. one finds
him enmeshed in circumstances
not brought about by himself, ex-
cepting his negative power of
failure to resist temptation. The
appearance of Sallie Tabor at his
home because their child was dy-
ing was not of his making. His
kinspeople had decided that the
: child should remain there.
This code of mountain ethics
has quirk all it's own. Sallie's
father didn't kill Ulys Palmer be-
cause he was the father of her
child, nor because he didn't mar
ry her, but because he had sworn
to do so eff he caught Sallie
hanging around there any more"
One doesn't know why it is
eight Britches" until in the clos
ing speech Aunt Vistie, alone and
mourning his death says "Poor
boy, he was too big for his
britches."
This may be dramatic pioneer
| ing or II NAV he inst not nrthn-