The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-06
The World of
the Theatre
By HAROLD EDGAR
COMMUNISTS ON BROADWAY

kONAhN b4fADAH OAN pbNhAWA
Before 1923 Communist characters
,5ere almost exclusively restricted 70
what the theatrical trade-papers
called foreign propaganda films
Since then the lower middle-class has
taken terrible beating, and the con-
traSt between the fright and despair
Of capitalist countries with the hope,
vigor and actual accomplishment Of
revolutionary Russia has become so
striking that net only workers but
mtellecvuals and professional people
nave come to look at the follow ers. of
Marx and Lenin with an interest that
ranges from respectful curiosity to
acceptance and participation. It is
natural, therefore, to see this general
movement express itself finally in the
bourgeois theatre. Now it begins to
seem as if no Broadway playwright
feels his work is really up-to-date I'M
less it includes at least one Commu-
mist.
When one looks back at some of
the pays in which Communists have
been set before Broadway audiences,
one is struck with the fact that the
Communist Of each play is no worse
than the pay itself. In other words,
the clue to the nature Of each play
their qualities and limitations may
be found in the p.aywright's treat
ment of his Communist. The reason
for this is that the Communist must
stand in the authors mind for an
entirely new social Iacvo., 10 a .-....a
of behavior and an attitude of mind
for which he has no set formula of
judgment, no artistic tradition to fol-
low. The playwright is thus. put on
his own, he is placed face to face
with phenomenon that demands a
genuinely original response. And so
we may read in his solution Of the
problem, how sharp his observation,
how wide his information, how keen
his social sense, how profound his
philosophy.
Let us examine number OF test
cases. One OF the first serious pre-
sensations of 8 Communist on Broad
way was in Bolithos Overture"
Boitho was journalist working in
Germany during the first outbreaks
Of rebeAion after the war Being a
sensitive man, he could not but take
the crisis in Germany with real
thoughtfuness, but beng a soft
minced liberal his heart was drawn
to the plight Of people Of similar char
acter whose expectant courage was
miseraoly Crushed. The Communist
in Overture" was drawn as a rather
callous, calculating. creature, "philo-
sophicai" with the detachment of an
adding machine. This picture, though
it attempted to be objective, was ut
terry false since it gave no idea of
why the Communist lacked sympathy
for the suffering of his liberal com
rade; it did not indicate what the
Communist himself was striving to-
ward, 10 show a Communist with
out conception OF the Communists
ultimate aim is to indulge in melo-
dramatic nonsense. And so Bolitho's
play, earnest and aware in certain
respects, was finally as iragmeutary
ana hopeless as the futile lnsurrec-
ton of its liberal hero
In Elmer Rice's Counsellor at
Law" the Communist was intTo6ueed
to point out the successful lawyers
morally shaky foundations. The Conn
munist accused the counsellor of be-
ing a shyster whose fortune was built
on dishonest maneuvers in the reg
ular middle-claSs tradition. The
counsellor defends himself heatedly.
In the excitement of their argument
one lost track of both the accusation
and the defense-the scene blew up
in fireworks. What remained was
feeling of pity for the sincere Com
munisv--ile had been brutally beaten
by the po.ice-a complacent Condone-
ment for the lawyer. This was pre-
cisely the fault of the whole pay:
1t brought up interesting material,
and converted it simply into box-of-
flee; tear, a laugh, a thrill, a
thought, sigh, and the whole bust
ness in the end remained merely a
star vehicle. None of the real issues
were faced at au.)
In S. N. Behrmans Biography, +"
the young radical" is outspoken,
rude, and generally opposed to con-
vent4onal society. This is really a
picture of the old-fashioned spaTior
Red" but the author takes him al
most at his own word, contrasting
him SIS a fanatic" with the heroine
who is an aesthetic. But such radi-
calism is simply an ado.escent trait
without mature thought or social I'M
derstanding, and to take him to rep
resent the revolutionary as a type
is to be a Broadway intellectual play
boy not yet grown up to world where
the word revolution" has a concrete
meaning. That Is why this comedy
as whole had no real substance,
and was only drawing froth.
More interesting is the case Of
George O'Neii's American Dream"
Here the author practically cries out
his conviction that bourgeois society
is corrupt through and through, and
the only sane person is the Commu-
mist who is shown as amiab.e, con-
ftdent, poised. But the Communist |
here is not revealed in action-all we
see him do is to return 5000 to a
millionaire of liberal views who Of
fered it to the Communist Party
with the result that we can hardly
be sure his sympathetic qualities are
Simply personal or the product of lis
Communist point of view. In other
words, as a Communist, he is vaguely
drawn, The play as whole suffers
likewise from being deScriptiYe rather |