Evening star., 1942-03-17

not all they are on this occasion
They are symbols of England and
Ireland, two countries which need
each other desperately, which speak
a common language, which fear a
common death, yet let old prides
and old emotions keep them from
the union in which there is strength.
The exactness of the parallel is
more clear in Mr.. Barrys mind than
in his play, or was accepted more
readily by him than it is likely to be
by more realistic theatergoers. Pol
itics and biology have their points of
difference as well as kinship.
This weakness in without Love"
Is not enough to obscure its many
prettily tender moments, the fact
that it is peppered with wit and
spiced with some saucy talk of
-fsDaour. Miss Hepburn, who has
found Giese uses of voice and gesture
that make her u 7ne reproof to her
old severe critics, an6"Asr. Nugent,
make moving and humorous affair
of their pretty misunderstanding.
Mr.. Barry, who has been an old
hand at that sort of thing since
The Animal Kingdom" knows pre-
ciSely the situations, and the words
they should say, to make their ro-
nance unfailingly dramatic. He is
in more involved affair when he
moves over and undertakes to ham
die the relations between England
and Ireland which are much more
complex, if foolish, no matter how
he harpS on the contrary.
His play gives him very little trou-
BILE in the first act because he is on
familiar ground. Ireland and Eng
land have not reared their stubborn
heads and the drama is concerned
only with the heroine and hero, she
widowed in a great loYe, he embit-
tered by a banal, unworthy one.
When they can agree to a marriage
of convenience to ease her loneliness
and his disappointment, the hero
becomes more determined than ever
that Ireland and Englyand could do
the same thing. While he is trying
to work it out with a stupid, blum
dering, impoSSible-to-reach official
dom-this in the second act--his
own marriage of convenience heads
for the rocks because his wife begins
to think unplatonicaly. That gives
Mr.. Barry lot of enmities and mis-
understanding to disintegrate in a
third act which would be better If
1t took less time and the solutions
looked little less simple.
Mr.. Barry's conceptions of Wash
ington officials and runners-up are
at least as convincing as the actual
ity even though he has not gone
too deeply into the subject. The
loosely defined presidential adviser;
the big and plain-spoken cabinet
member, the society playboy and
his lacquered shrew, and the case
hardened secretary, all of them well
played by the guilds good cast,
look sufficiently accurate to pass.
And, if they talk little too cleverly,
it is no more than the permissible
amount of idealism on the part of
an out-of-town playwright.
The third juicy morsel among the
characters is that of the secretary
assigned to Audrey Christie. who
makes fine thing of it. Others
worthy of mention are J. M. Kerri-
gan, Robert Shayne, Robert CHS
holm, Barry Thompson and Donald
Briggs.
Robert B. Sinclair has not COM
pleted his directoral job on with
out Love" although he has done
handsomely by certain of its pas
sages. Robert Edmond Jones, who
designed the sets, the living room
of late, great Senator's home, has
created an effective foundation for
Mr.. Barry's still uneven, If hopeful,
drama.