Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-12-11
Proper Casts
Can Revive
The Road
Jed Harris Says
Original Players
Can't Fail
By Jay CarmOdy.

Among the numerous noIlolls
current today on the subject OF re
viving the road" that of Jed Harris
is not so expansive as those OF
many other producers, but it COM
pares very favorably in other re-
spects. It is Mr.. Harris idea that
a New York success touring the
country with the original cast can
not fail to convince citizens IN the
provinces that the theater is not
dead; or, in other words, that the
movies are not ALL
That is why Our Town" is COM
ing to the National this week with
Frank Craven heading the expan-
sive list of talent which is required
to give life to Thornton Wllders
Pulitzer Prize play.
When the play turned out to be
such an enormous success last year,
which happened before the Pulitzer
judges awarded it the most signal
honor at their disposal, there were
suggestions that secondary COM
panies be formed to take 1t
touring. Mr.. Harris, a Ilrm, out
spoken gentleman, said no. He
would wait, he added. until the first
and only company had completed
its chore on Broadway and then
the country could see the play IN
the fullness of its glory.
Mr., Harris is like that. He makes
up and speaks his mind and 1t stays
both made up and spoken. He is
the producer, you may not remem-
Der, who does not mind rejecting
upon the virtues and defects OF
critics and then giving the results
of his deliberations without ref
erence to whether they f1atter the
subject. A great many persons in
his place on flattering terms with
the critics, as Mr.. Harris was at
the time, might have lodged the
issue. He does not work that way
so when the subject came up in
New York last year he just said he
thought the critics were nice enough
fellows who did not know very
much.
"Our Town" Is Played
Without Scenery.
:. A nice little conversational gamblt
for those who like to talk about the
theater is to be found in the fact
that "Our Town" is played without
scenery. After you have seen it
you might try (conversatlonally) tc
figure out how it could have been
presented any other way. The
movement of the Wilder drama. the
locale of which is a small New Eng
land town, is as large as life itself
Indeed. it is larger than life, in a
manner of speaking, for its THIRD
episode is laid in a cemetery and is
deeply and beautifully concerned
with the suburbs of Immortality.
Contemplated for production ir
the usual fashion, which Mr.. Wilder
was far too smart to do, Our Town
would have been drama to drive {
stage designer mad. It just woult
not take scenery-which it definitel,
does not need to give it depth o
conviction far beyond that of man.
plays which require so much tina
they are the answer to decreased
carloadings.
And speaking of the bare stag
on which Our Town" is played
with just few props, this corner
favorite story of its scenerylessnes
goes back to last spring in Ney
York
A provincial theater fan who ha'
been waiting for months to see tn
drama found himself in the hous
where it was playing few minute
before curtain time. 1t was pleasan
to sit there, looking at the bar
STAGE with its exposed steam pipe
At the rear. Except for the steam
pipes, one might have been lookin
at the stage of the Greeks or O
Shakespeare, nice subject for
reverie.
But like so many reveries, thi
one met its interruption. 1t cam
in the form of bulgy woman VIII
came in with a male companio
and took the next two seats.
The following five minutes wer
consumed with the woman's TRAD
against the sloppinesS OF New Yor
theater arrangements who mad
absolutely no effort to have stage
set in advance. II can't understan
It," she remarked, unless there's
strike. And if there was strik
(See CARMODY, Page F-3D