Evening star., 1937-11-02

actress, VINO is responsible. Or per-
haps it is M Deval and Mr. Sherwood.
Or it may be even a combination of
the three of them, plus one of the
most capable casts ever assembled
Whatever it is, "Tovarich" should be
. must" on the program of those who
think it is the function of the theater
10 amuse, entertain and inform all in
ths same breath. That, at any rate,
u the achievement of this drama of
the Russian revolution, which turned
loose upon Paris two of the most
amusing characters ever to make their
appearance upon any stage.
If it has seemed grimly amusing
that grand dukes and their grand
duchesses should be reduced to appall-
ingly subordinate places In the world,
1t is doubly so that they should be
Rudolf Forster and Marta Abba play
ing Prince Mikhail Alexandrovitch
Ouratieff and his grand spouse, the
Grand Duchess Tatiana Petrovna.
There is no travail through which
these two highly aristocratic individ-
uals do not love each other, and 1t is
wistfully amusing that the authors Of
"Tovarich" have placed them in the
position Of servants to nouveau richie
family that they might be at their
very best in every aspect of the art
of living.
With the exception of John Halliday,
who dropped out of "Tovarich" after
creating the role of Mikhail, the cast
which played the piece last night at
the National is the same as that which
played it for more than year in New
York. The long interval of its per-
formance there has robbed it of none
of its freshness and Mr.. Forster is
quite as credible in the major maScu-
line role as Halliday or any of the
other four who played the role before
the drama reached Washington.
1t is Miss Abba, however, who is
the miracle lady of the performance.
She contributes to it one of the rich
est portrayals that this or any other
season is likely to see. Her Grand
Duchess is completely great lady, a
woman who is no less great because
If she had presided over it.
X X X
TN EVERY phase of one of the most
difficult roles conceivable Miss
Abba gives a thoroughly convincing
performance, one entirely worthy of
the approximately tumultuous acclaim
which she received upon the conclu-
sion of last nights portrayal of the
Grand Duchess character. Before the
final curtain fell she had demonstrated
herself to be the perfect wife in
every respect, from wheedling the right
vegetables out of the grocer to being
the eminently correct maid in that
family of the new rich. Miss Abba in
fact was superb.
Margaret Dale and Jay Bassett are
quite as good as they were last Spring
In the parts of the wife and husband
who employed the Grand Duke and his
wife as their altogether too perfect
servants. So are James Truck and
Amanda Duff as the son and daughter
who dutifully, and wisely, fell in love
with those servants as portrayed by
Miss Abba and Forster.
Especially noteworthy among the
performances of the evening was that
of Cecil Humphreys as Commissar
Gorotochenko. 1t is quite a far cry
from sympathetic character that Mr..
Humphreys interprets as the former
friend Of the Ouratieffs, but, he con-
trives to make of it one of the more
imposing characterizations of the
play.
The authors of "Tovarich," for all
the social implications of their drama,
have had no axes to grind. They are
neither for nor against what has
happened in Russia. They have con-