Detroit evening times., 1945-01-19
FAIR
ENOUGH
WestbrookA 4,

oih bOA5Ab W NAAeS O' Aiy
day off.
This play is going TO be a
sequel and reply TO J. p. Mar
Quand's George Apley show in
which by prearrangement. tradi-
tion and, you might say, pre-
destination, the son of stuffy.
ariStocratic Boston family gets
married to a kind Of scrawny,
watery cousin Of his named
Agnes, but his kid sister takes
the fence in a fawn-like leap and ?
pairs herself off TO brash intel
lectual squirt from New York
and goes TO live happily with
him in Greenwich Village.
The Apleys are exaggerated
snobs who wear their ears very
close together and Mr.. Mar
quand gives them a good going
over, which is all right with me,
although l must say that. as
game for a social satirist. this
kind are strictly barnyard ducks.
Along in the middle of the
piece, the kid arches his neck
al an off-staGe character named
Myrtle something, whose old
man comes from Kansas City
and runs a tool and die busi-
ness in w o re : eor and the
Apleys arc in mood TO turn his
picture toward the wall when
Myrtles paw he breaks up the
play, himself, on the ground
that they come from two utterly
incompatible breeds of cats and
never could be happy together.
We leave the young fellow set
tied down 10 stately monotony
and tradition with Cousin Agnes
and are told that the kid sister
and the New York fellow. al
Yale-rah,- By the way and AZ
lecturer on literature. are get
ting along well.
WELL. that is Marquand's
w story and when you are
weaving pieces out of your own
fancy YOU have a right 10 knot
the ends any way you like. but,
in n1 play, we are going 10 do
some pcering and prying and
discover a very different state of
affairs down in Greenwich VIII
lage
We are going 10 find aHEthat
in the AplSy girls new league
the standards OF conduct,
thought and honesty are very
inferior 20 those OF Beacon
street Boston. and | am not
sure but that We Will set her
and her husband 20 lally-gag-
ging just by way of self-expres-
sion and write in a Hungarian
dream reader with a clientele Of
arty neurotics and generally no.
account sons and daughters Of
well-to-do parents who think
they are repressed because they
aren't encouraged 10 talk dirty
and 60 out sleeping around
We are going to take the posi-
ton that those restraints, I'M
posed by religion and civilza-
ton. which our Hungarian
dream-doctor calls inhibi,ions.
are, in fact. morals. and our
play is going 10 trot out several
naSty-mlnded females 10 sling
Freud at the audience until. to-
ward the end. all the decent
people in the house are posed 10
tear home and plunge into
bath Of nothing milder than
sheep-dlp.
THESE mattreSs-backs are all
l. patients of the continental
phrenologist and they keep o1/
going 10 him, and their succestv
sive husbands. too. because they
know that instead Of telling
them they ought 10 be ashamed
OF being such buns. he is going
10 prescribe adultery and booz-
ing as normal releases from abb
normal and artificial rules I'M
posed by such as the ApleyS.
We are going 10 make him a
very sinister and powerful
monster. and ] don't know but
that we might steer into his
trap sucker with a tremen-
dous. and more or less ill-got-
ten fortune and a rotten family
history. who is solemnly ad-
viSed 10 buy up a great radio
chain and express himself by
saturatlng the air with Com
munist propaganda in the name
of democracy.
We Will point eat that a lot
of moCk-intellectuals of this
set, who are forever yelling up
this and that formula for soli-
darity with Europe and perma-
nent peace. can't even get along
with a husband or wife more
than three years and casually
breed numerous sets of kids and
park them around in dude
schools on the pretext that this
gives them advantages when
the fact is that they can't be
bothered 10 give them their
raising and don't want them
asking questions about what
happened to their last daddy.
Contrary 10 Mr.. Marquand's
purpose, l found myself begin
ming to like those Apleys for
their good qualities and in spite
of their bad ones. and detesting
the literary squirt for charac-
teristics not written into him by j..
the author but which neverthe-
less. l have seen there in the
course of considerable observa-
tion in the arts. our government -
and our education / know th'
forLy