The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-01-15
The World of
the Theatre
BIZ HAROLD EDGAR
Tobacco Road

bacco Road" at the Masque The
atre is a dirty, disagreeable play with
an outstanding performance by Henry
Hull. To the liberal opposition ITO
bacco Road" Is racy folk study that
contains the pathos and humor Of
everyday life amongst the outcast
poor white of the South. Neither Of
these views is acceptable to us.
The merit Of Tobacco Road" is
its subject matter. The countryside
not only in the South, but all over
the q. S., are peopled with such dere-
ncts-the heirs Of completely brok-
en-doWn farmers or farm laborers-
as we see depicted in Tobacco Road"
They live In conditions of indescrib-
able misery which no one could prop
erly call human. In the midst Of
sunshine and rich lands, they inhabit
shacks without light, air or comfort.
Whole families sleep, eat and perform
| all their natural functions in one
room. They live without interests or
hope off the little patches Of soil
that surround their dwellings: they
beg, borrow or steal Many Of them
are inevitably born stunted or dis
eased.
Since the American theatre is al
most entirely given over to unimag-
NATIVE adventures in unreaKty, to
put such characters as these on our
stage is in itself something so un-
conventional as to earn our interest
and to certain extent our applause.
We prefer by far the bare naturalism
of Tobacco Road" to the high-school
naughtiness of Sailor, Beware"
Nevertheless, Tobacco Road" re-
mains, for all its details, fragmen-
tary picture and, what is more dis
appointing, a casual one. The reason
for this may be the authors attempt
to be collective" and unsentimental.
But there is the objectivity of the
artist who maintains detached APP
proach in order to see and render
the truth more clearly, and there Is
the detachment of the reporter who
is essentially unconcerned about his
material and looks at it as an out
slider making clever notations or
strange phenomena.
The authors Of Tobacco Road" Git
Is a dramatization by Jack Kirk
land of a novel by Erskine CaldweID
do not reveal the emotion that comes
from a true connection with their
material, q real understanding or
sympathy. 1t lacks a point OF view
and seems to address itself to no
body in particular. Thus it arouseS
neither sorrow, pity or anger. 1t
leaves one coldly amused. and when
one realizes that one is laughing at
unfortunate human beings one
leaves the theatre with a lowered
sense Of ones own humanity or
suspicion that the authors have not
told the whole story, have in fact
cheated us with half-truths.
In only one somewhere the bank
er comes to put these wretched "crea-
lures who once were men" out OF
their decayed shanty-is there any
suggestion Of the social forces that
produce these distorted lives. And
this scene is presented in the same
accidental manner as the rest. 1t
seems nothing but an incident OF the
plot, whereas we should see in it the
real causes Of the whole situation.
And just as these social forces are
only vaguely suggested, so the indi-
vidual characters, too, suffer from
lack of background in their portrayal.
They are striking as such characters
must be, but they are thin. One feels
in them little more than what one
sees, which does not make them any,
thing better than superior caricatureS.
In a way that the authors surely did
not intend, their play contributes to
the cynicism and indifference of
bourgeois audience to whom the
plays characters are little more than
strange breed Of animal that a
tourist might observe, watch for
moment, and forget.
The performance, like the play,
ranges from the curious and almost
touching to the downright crude. 1t
mixes the casual and pointless with
occasional shrewd theatricality, trick
mess. 1t, too, has broken, unde-
cided, unorganized manner and never
creates completely unified impress
sion. Henry Hull's performance is
the living embodiment of the whole
shows virtues and shortcomings. 1t
is sincere and partly genuine, con-
vincing by certain disinterested ma
turalness, but it is little blind" and
disconnected.
The most encouraging thing about
Tobacco Road" as a whole is that
it was produced at all on Broadway,
and that having been produced, it
survives the typically superficial re-
ception Of half baked ''razz" reviews.