The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1939-11-25
S1AGEDooR
Dramatic Reviews
and Comment
By ROBERT E. HAYDEN
ARMCHAIR THEATRE

We SNkbANh NOAAA
fortably in our own private Arm
chair theatre to read Lillian He'll
mans -fi1c-bittfe- Foxesa@and
"Mamba's Daughters" by DuBose
and Dorothy Hayward. THE Little
Foxes" is the relentless study of
rich Southern family at the turn of
the century of their cruelty to one
another their vicious greed. The
Heywards' play is the story OF
Hagar, a gigantic immoral Negro
woman, who murders her daughters
blackmailer and then takes her own
life. What struck us in a random
comparison Of the two plays was
the distinctly different approaches
taken to the delineation OF Ne
groes. Miss Hellman's play is con-
cerned with Negroes only inciden-
tally, but the two servants, Addie
and Cal, are not the obsequious,
boot-licking menials Broadway and
Hollywood are fond of foisting of
on the public; they are intelligent
and bear resemblance to reality
In few brief lines of dialogue Miss
Hellman has carried her sense of
social reality to its proper length,
when she has one of her characters
say there must be a better way of
getting rich than by robbing poor
Negroes. And in another instance,
there is reference to industrialists
who put poor whites and poor Ne
groes against one another. These
are only flashes, and Addie and Cal
are minor characters, but they come
as step in the right direction and
are based upon the right social
values.
In "Mamba's Daughters" however,
the Negro characters, including
Hagar, the role created by Ethel
Waters, are a congress of stereo-
types presided over by the kindly
Mr.. Saint who Understands" his
black folks and takes charge of
their money and other affairs. Flash
ing razors, loose women, seduction,
religious orgies, bad likker, gamb-
ling, and general ignorance are the
background of Hagar's tragedy. In
other words, "Mamba's Daughters"
but for the acting of Ethel Waters,
Fredi Washington, Georgette Har-
vey, and Willie Bryant, would prob
ably be lust another one of those
things" turned out by Broadway
for the entertainment of the car
Fiage trade Quite apart from the
standpoint OF its fidelity to Negro
life, "Mambas Daughters" is pretty
obvious melodrama and is poor in
comparison with THE Little Foxes"
One gets tired of carping about
what play dealing with Negroes
should or should not be like
especially since our own play
wrights seem so loathe to cast
stereotypes into" the fire and strike
out toward something truly def
nitive. And especially since Negro
dramatic groups would much rather
present discarded Broadway sue
cesses than produce plays dealing
with the stuff of Negro life: the
real stuff like segregation, questions
Of housing, lynching, the labor
struggle, the color line as mani
tested in both inter-group and intra-
group relationships.
DON'T YOU WANT TO BE FREE
Rehearsals for Langston Hughes
Don't You Want To Be Free" have
been under way for quite some time
now, and the play will have its first
Detroit production at Plymouth
Congregational church soon. Hughes
describes his play as a poetry
play" and verse dialog has been in
larded with prose. One of the few
verse plays written by Negroes,
Don't You Want to be Free"
utilities symbolism, folk-songs, and
experimental stage devices to tell
its story of Negro struggle, from the
days OF slavery down to the present
era of police brutality and the
labor struggle. This play has been
successfully produced in Los
Angeles. New York, and Chicago
and has evoked much interest by
the timeliness of its them and by
its appeal as experimental theatre.
WANTED: A STORE-FRoNT
THEATRE
We have had a project in mind
for several months now, envisag-
ing the establishment Of store
front theatre which physically and
culturally could be used as rally
ing ground for all those interested
in the theatre and its allied arts.
With the help Of few close friends
we have drawn up pretty complete
plans for this theatre, which would
be cooperative in nature, and have
tried to talk it up among the
actors. writer's. and other artists
here. As yet our efforts have been
fruitless; partly because there is
not enough abiding interest on the
part OF those who would be most
directly benefited by such ven
ture and party because we have
been unable to raise funds for the
rental OF a suitable store-front
Something should be done TO give
! direction and significance 10 the