The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-01
WORLD Of THE
THEATRE
Shock Troupe in Fine NeW
Play
THE WORKERS LABORATORY
THEATRE representing the first
plays of It's fifth year; at the
Fifth Avenue Theatre.
Reviewed by
LEON ALEXANDER

ALO&N EAALAf1ANOGh
TO THOSE "revolutionists" Of the
1 theatre who, like Elmer Rice
have become depressed by their
nightmarish memories of stuffed
shirt" first-night audiences an
who have expressed a growing dis
gust with Broadway, we recommend
a visit to the performances of the
Workers Laboratory Theatre, as a
tonic experience.
Here is no new" theatre in the
sense of the esthetes; the preoc-
cupation with new forms for the
sake Of novelty is a stupidity of
which the robust Workers Labora-
tory Theatre is not guilty. Like the
revolutionary Moliere, hammering
at a crumbling, reactionary feuda-
lism, the workers Laboratory
Theatre can say; eve take ours
where we find it," But it has
breathed into the old forms a
new, vital revolutionary spirit; it
has created new theatre audi
ence; and where the need arose, as
in 'Newsboy," it has even given
birth to new forms.
Last Wednesdays performance
offered two new plays and four
old ones. The new plays both repre-
sent new departure for the Work
ers Laboratory Theatre, a first at
tempt with careful realistic forms.
Both were not equally successful.
Jews at the Crossroads" by Os-
car Saul and Louis Lantz, was
superficial, obvious; the two au-
thors have not rid themselves of
the cliches of that other form
which they were trying to leave be-
hind, the agit-prop play. But pro-
duced in an uncertain, realistic
manner, their play was decidedly
unmoving and stale. The dialogue
is banal and stands in sharp need
of a ruthless blue pencil. For a
realistic play, a more tightly knit,
more significant dialogue is neces-
sary. Each word must be there
because it is the absolutely neces-
sary word; each word must move
the action forward. And the basis
Of the play must be a dramatic,
central situation, not a thesis to
be proved.
This is not to say that the type
of plays Represented by Jews at
the Crossroads" cannot be used by
our Workers Theatre, but they need
a different kind of production, more
akin to that of the agit-prop play;
they cannot stand the glazing light
of a realistic production.
DUT excellent as Daughter" is, it
u dramatized from a story by Err
skine Caldwell, is a short MASTER
piece. In no play on Broadway
have heard such beautiful, musical
dialogue-and I am not excluding
the much vaunted poetry of Within
the Gates" This story Of the
hunger-d driven tenant farmer who
kills his daughter so that he may
not see her slowly starve grips you
from the first words. Horror
changes to sympathy, then to revo-
lutionary understanding as we real
ize the forces that drove him to his
crime; as we see that behind the
bars is the victim and not the Grim
inal.
The acting of individuals in this
play is excellent; but in the group
scenes-a much too skinpy mass
Observation-Disclosures was a great deal
of uncertainty and hesitation so
that the emotional tension dropped
considerably in those scenes. The
tempo of the whole was also too
UNMARRIED. The simple, single set
ting unit was highly ingenious and
effective.
DUT excellent as Daughter" is, 1t
suffers from the same weakness
of an inconclusive ending, as does
Jews at the Crossroads" This in
conclusiveness attaches itself also to
the direction of the curtain scenes.
In such a short and concentrated
realistic play, the ending must not
come as a neat solution" but as
an emotional sweep that must leave
the audience with those feelings
which the play intended them to
carry away: hatred of their OPP
pressors, determination to carry on
the Strugges, etc.
Another point or criticism that I
would like the Workers Lab. Theatre
to note is that they should pay
more attention to the technical
niceties of production. They should
allow no carelessness of execution
to mar the dramatic illusion. This
means that simple technical details
should never be neglected.
OF Brain Trust" and Hot Pas
trami," I had the feeling that they
would have been much more effec-
tive in a smaller hall or on the
streets than in an auditorium Of
the size Of the Fifth Avenue Thea
tire.
The singing, especially that of
Flying Squadron" which I heard
for the first time, was stirring. The
Shock Troupe gave one of ats best
performances of "Newsboy," which
still remains the most significant
artistic accomplishment of the
Workers Laboratory Theatre.