The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-12
Cheers Greet New
Revolutionary Play
By Group Theatre
by del
Reviewed by
NATHANIEL BUCHWALD


Odets. Produced by the Group
Theatre and acted by the cast
of Gold Eagle Guy" on January
at the Civic Repertory Theatre.
IT requires some effort to suppress
the urge toward superlatives in
reviewing Waiting for Lefty" but
sober appraisal will, in the long
run, prove more useful to the young
revolutionary dramstist Cliff Odets
and his audience than would a
burst of cheering. Cliff Odets has
displayed an uncommon ear for the
American vernacular and an I'M
common literary gift of turning the
vernacular into pithy, luminous and
galyanizing dialogue. What is more
important, he writes in the idiom
of the drama, in terms Of character,
poignant dramatic situations and
tense emotional crises.
Propelled by his burning reyolu-
tionary fervor and by an essentially
clear guiding idea, this young play
wright swept the audience on it's
feet by the sheer power and sin
cerity of dramatic utterance, which
was amplified and given vibrant
resonance by the magnificent per-
formances of the Group Theatre
players But the very gush of his
dramatic say has resulted in Woe
full looseness of play structure and
in strident overtones which all but
vitiate his message.
OStensibly the play deals with
the walkout of the taxi drivers.
But the meeting of the taxi drivers
serves merely as convenient
excuse for series of flash-backs
into the homes, Offices and lives Of
the group assembled on the plat
form. Unable to stand it any
longer, the people in Odets' play
decide to have it out with the
monster of capitalism They refuse
to take it lying down, and the more
timid among them are urged on
and shamed by the womenfolk to
go into battle.
THERE is something naively yet
1 touchingly romantic in the way
the taxi drivers wife in one episode
and the secretary of theatrical
producer in another pour courage
and fight into the hearts of the
meek men with the aid of fervent
revolutionary slogans and militant
exhortations which now and then
deteriorste into mere sloganisnl OF
exhortations which now and then
deteriorate into mere sloganism or
rhetoric.
But there is also poignant drama
in these tense situations. Confront
ed with the alternative of losing his
wife or going on strike to gain
decent livelihood for her, the taxi
driver of the first episode decides
to join with the strikers and re-
habilitate himself in the eyes of
his scornful wife.
Dismissed from the hospital be-
cause he is Jew, the young doctor
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but is fired with high resolve to
devote his life to the destruction of
the system that makes such things
possible.
Forced to give up his sweetheart
because he loves her too much to
marry her on starvation wages, the
young taxi driver tries to hide his
tragedy under guise of wise
cracks and low comedy, but breaks
down in the end and breaks the
heart of the audience as he does so.
Though each episode is eloquent
in itself, all of them put together
fail to make a play. The young
dramatist is apparently too cramp-
ed within the bounds of q mere taxi
strike and he leaps to the broader
arena of generalizations. He aban-
dons the particular for the general,
thus weakening the effectiveness
of his message.
THERE is something compelling
1 and fascinating in the fervor
and driving sincerity of the NAV