Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-01-26

are nitigated by the suspicion that
the woes depicted are unreal. That,
after all, they are but imaginary ex-
periences;; contrived by playwright
and given artificial form and utter
ance by actors and scene-designers.
You do not always believe in them.
But In Ethan Frome" you are per-
suaded, through the skill of the many
artists concerned in its recording,
that its agonies and desolation are
true. So you sit, helpless onlooker
in front OF them, sorry, in case you
are a philanthropist, that you can do
nothing to help. Still, it is probable
that you will enjoy them-such is the
pleasure afforded by tale of distant
unhappiness, told relentlessly by hon.
est story-tellers who know their bust
ness and practice it in the best man
ner Of the stage.
YOU will sympathize with poor
Mrs. Frome miss Pauline Lord
who is melancholy hypochondriac,
depending upon patent medicines and
quack doctors to cure the sickness of
her soul. You will suffer vicariously
with Ethan Frome, her husband (Nlr.
Raymond Massey, as suddenly into
his barren life comes another woman,
the waif-niece of his wife -(Miss Ruth
Gordon). to be cheerful drudge in
the cold Frome kitchen. She has a
naive zeSt for existence, being an
optimistic child of nature. though
ignorant as he is, of sex's ruddier
ecstasies. Blindly they become fonder
and fonder Of each other until, made
desperate by the situation. they de-
eide to end it all by crashing their
bobsled into an elm tree. But so
cynical Is fate and the novel by Miss
Edith Wharton that they emerge in
an epilogue, 20 years later, old,
MANNED and loathing each other,
while Miss Lord, changed from devil
TO angel, ministers patiently to their
afflictions.
ETHAN PRONE" is tragedy
whose quiet brutalities and de-
spondencies can recommend for your
enjoyment. Adapted securely from
Miss Wharton's grim New England
diary by Mr.. Owen Davis and his son
Donald, it retains all the pleasantly
hideous horrors Of the book and aug
ments them with subtle touches of the
theater. You will see in its perform
ance penetrating impersonation by
Miss Lord as jealous, stubborn and
immovable half-mad peasant, deter
mined to be unhappy and to make
those about her likewise. Miss Gordon
exhibits her birdlike personality. half
canary, half raven, in her characteri-
cation, and Mr. Massey is thoroughly
the gaunt and illiterately romantic
Ethan Frome. The play is a fine ex-
ample Of what the theater can do with
life, and Mr.. Max Gordon, the pro-
ducer, who assembled, regulated and
supervised its production. is entitled
for his ability. in that and other
things, to be called the first Snowman
Of the United States of America.
MR.. MIELZINER'S New England
~'A snowdrifts in Ethan Frome" call
attention to the fact that the scene
designer now occupies an important
center of interest in the drama. The
accent in many recent productions is
upon the settings rather than upon
the play and the acting. Where once
upon a time it was the star, the au-
thor the manager and the drama that
entertained us in the theater, now it is
the artist who plans and executes the
backgrounds. At present 10 Mielziner,
Simonson, Norman Bel Geddes and
Donald Oenslager, to mention just a
few of them, are tops in the drama.
They build and paint everything from
the star-lit skies to the Brooklyn
Bridge, including penthouses, slums
and primroses, blooming upon the