Evening star., 1941-04-29

ter Slezak and Karen Morley. They
and the many others charged with
portraying the confusion of dying
France achieve too much confusion
for purposes of compelling theater.
The heart wants to go along, but
the going is too rough.
Xxx **
AS the scene of Frances sickness
and death, the authors of Some
where in France" chose a small
tavern in a village near Rheims. To
it they bring an overwhelming cross
section of the heirs and heiresses of
the tradition of liberty, equality and
fraternity. There is the good
hearted innkeeper who so loves his
son that he bribes an army medical
officer to fail him in his physical
exam: the drudge of wife who
boards her centimes as a religion:
the son who double-crosses his
father, seduces the kitchen maid and
then double her by way of
indicating a lack of moral stand
ards; the voluptuouS daughter who
finds theological warmth in the local
Nazi nest; the army officer whose
belief in liberty makes him Red"
in the eyes of the others; the pudgy,
vulgar amoral German who spies
while peddling wine: the Communist
workers from the nearby munitions
factory whose sullen conviction is
that they are working for the Bank
of England: the factory owner who
is on the side of the biggest poten-
tial customer, which happens to be
Germany.
With the incidental characters.
they make for a congestion that
eliminates the possibility of move
ment, putting it straight up to the
playwrlghtS to talk their point
through. They are barely able to do
that during the first act of the
play. In the second, conditions are
a bit better Movement is achieved
by the device of bringing them on
in groups, rather arbitrary groups.
1t works so much better that it is
used again in the third, and best,
passage of the play.
The major elements of the plot
of Somewhere in France" are SIM
pie enough in themselves. They
involve three persons, the lazy
father who idoliZes his son; the son
who regards himself as the circum-
ference of life; the pretty kitchen
maid who loves the boy with only
normal blindness to his faults.
The three have reduced the France
to themselves: it exists for them, not
they for it. Only the girl would not
betray it for the most basely selfish
motives. Before the play is over,
only she, an idealistic army officer
and a veteran of the War of 1870,
of all the characters in the play, do
not participate in the betrayal.
The story which the Messrs. Zuck-
mayer and Kortner undertake to
tell of these people is one that was
told many times last summer after
the fall of France and before the
imminent fall of other countries
changed the focus. 1t still has in
it those appalling elements of warn
ing which are more impressive than
ever to the dwindling democracies.
1t deserves a better, less confused
telling and it is not impossible that
it may yet be achieved by ruth
less reWorking of Somewhere in
France"
There is hope for that in the skill
of several key performances in the
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. drama. That
of Digges as the indolent, boisterous,
moralless old son-worshiper is one.
Others include Alexander Knox's
moving study of the young high
minded army officer; Addy as
the confused, spoiled son; Arlene
Frances as the traitorous daughter,
and Flora Campbell assthe patriotic
wife of the despicable arms manu-
facturer. Miss Morley is handi-
capped by the writing of her role
as the kitchen maid, which Is a
bit too uneven for her talents, and,
one suspects, any one else's.
X
The big task of bringing order out
of the chaos of Somewhere in
France" is that which devolves upon
Worthington Minor, its director. If
he can find a way to silence a few
characters, eliminate few others,
get still others into motion, and con-
centrate the focus where 1t should
be. the Guild may yet have a play.
IIyo+ro, porrott'S setting will make