Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-11-06


ABOUT as no other young man of
letters could hope to do.
Saroyans nonconformity. of course,
is not limited to despoilation of the
accepted fashions in writing. That
is just the most spectacular thing
about him. The real excitement he
creates grows out of his compass
sionate contemplation of the little
people. whose Importance he is
going to prove or bust, busting with
him perhaps the Theater Guild,
which has taken him under its, until
recently, somewhat frayed wing.
The odds are greatly in favor Of
success for Saroyan and the guild,
for the little people of Saroyan's
The Time of Your Life" are the
most talked of in New York at
the moment. A more lovable. crafty
assorted crew you never saw than
this job of soiled doves, socially
conscious saloon keeper, a philo-
sophical, almost divine barf1y, his
simple, ponderous, worshipping
stooge, a lyrical longshoreman, a
policeman who is going insane try
ing to find out what life is about,
Negro youth enraptured by the
beauty of music, Munchausen
who talks like w. c. Fields, be-
unused young tap dancer who always
is dreaming of creating new style
of comedy and others just as ap-
pealing.
The Time of Your Life" assem-
bles all these remarkable people
in a waterfront saloon. 1t just
lets them talk their heads of and
the hearts out, nothing more. I'm
like other dramatists Saroyan does
not try to get his little people any
where. He is content merely to
show you what they are and they
stand at the end of the play pre-
cisely where they did at the begin
ming, but they have provided one of
the finest evenings of theater imag-
Unable. One is justified in calling
it crazy patchwork of humor,
pathos, poetry, philosophy, bawdi-
ness, romance and other elements,
but it is one of the happiest couple
of hours one ever spent in saloon.
And the hangover is sweet, which
is just about the rarest thing you
ever experienced.
1t is pretty lyrical speech that
Saroyan puts in the mouths of
his welcome strangers, but it never
sounds lofty and lost, although it
does sound repetitious and a little
dull in spots. Those, however. are
inevitable and forgivable flaws in so
formless play, especially when
it attains the height of beauty
which comes to it at many mo-
mentS.
Saroyan has been called obscure,
incoherent and many other elegant
critical adjectives since he exploded
in the face of the critics and the
public. He has his moments of both
in The Time of Your Life" but that
any one could find his play confusing
in its essential meaning is inconceiv-
able. He apparently merely wants
you to meet some sweet, simple, be-
unused, but interesting friends of
his; the kind of people who have
made his own life such a fascinat-
ing adventure. They may be I'M
familiar, but so were Jeeter Lester,
and those maniacal specimens in
"Hellzapoppin," to mention but few
who have the same kind of crazy
charm. If Saroyan is in a cosmic
mood in The Time of Your Life"
lot of people are able these days to
hop right in it with him, and audi
ences have been VIGOROUSLY dis
posed not to feel cosmic with play
wrights.
X X X X
The guild had been extraordinarily
f1attering to Saroyan in its choice
of players to interpret the lives of
his humble men and women. For the
role of the godlike philosopher who
breaches love and understanding and