Evening star., 1937-10-31

years by that Sprlgntly OHsprng oi
the Government, the Federal Theater
Project, "Processional' demonstrates
that it is Just as haunting and ex-
citing as its admirers said it was and
that its detractors were just old fogies.
I think there can be little doubt that
it is one OF the classics OF the Amerl-
can theater and one Of the modern
plays most clearly entitled to respect
and appreciation. Strange Things
have happened to the world since Mr..
Lawson's play had its embattled The
ater Guild engagement, and not the
least strange of them is that this
fighting work, which once frightened
people with its Bolshevik tendencies, is
now applauded by the reviewers OF
such conservative journals as the
Herald Tribune, the New York Times
and the New Yorker and is set upon
with some indignation by the critic
of the New Masses.
In the authors preface to his pub
lished play, as printed in the pro-
gram, Mr.. Lawson says: Buried
under the hokum Of advertisements.
headlines, radio speeches, there Is
a genuine inner necessity, sense
of direction. What is the key and
the meaning? What does the future
hold beside the indefinite prolonga-
ton of human life by glandular treat
ment, and the total annihilation OF
it in the eagerly expected next world
WARP" There is about this quotation
a certain pretentious air that unfortu-
nately finds its way into the play oc-
casionally. but at least 1t does of1er
a suggestion of the authors purpose
in what still is a sometimes cryptic
drama. Mr. Lawson found the
hokum Of advertisements. headlines,
radio speeches" as we'll as the comic
strip. VAUDEVILLE, the feverish tempo
of iazz and the strident accents OF
burlesque, to represent the mood and
the quality of American life in its
most significant aspects. He hoped,
by tossing them all together into a
fantastic melodrama of American in
dustrial strife in one OF its most
fantastic arenas, the State of West
Virginia, to capture the feeling and
the direction OF that life in more
striking and incisive fashion than
could be managed in the conventional
realistic play. The resulting drama is
brash, occasionally unintelligible,
funny, exciting, eccentric, disturbing,
noisy, often hauntingly eloquent and
always vigorously alive.
1T MUST be confessed that the pro-
duction which the Federal Theater
Project has accorded Professional
is far from satisfying one. The
staging is too lacking in electric zest
and the excitement Of the works Jazz
tempo. Where the drama should
throb with a savage sort of excitement
and abandon, it has way of SEEM
ing sedate and even desultory. The
settings, too, while handsome in q
black, cold. semi-realistic way, fai
to capture the mood of the play be-
cause they lack the cheaply stylizec
vaudeville quality that the purpose OF
Professional" calls for. The acting
think. is rather too deliberate. And
the authors revision of text, which
consists both of excisions and addi-
tions to the original, has not helped
things at all. 1t seems to me that II
would have been much better If Mr.
Lawson had just left things as they
we're, although it is only fair to say
that the changes are by no means
serious ones. I must grant, also. that
some of the reason for the impression
that the current production of PRO
cessional" is inferior to the original
lies in the fact that many of us who
were enthusiastic about the play ir
the first place now tend to idealize
the performance we saw in 1925. Still
1 think there can be little doubt that
the original production, with George
Abbott. Miss June Walker. Donald
Macdonald and Philip Loeb in the
leading roles, was more effective in
every way than the w. P. A. edition.