Evening star., 1947-09-03


learned how to defend itself. Ever.
comes to town, Broadway is the one
which survives.
Playwright Riggs has nothing new
to offer on the subject of how it is
with the nbidos of the artists. His
people, Miss Chase and some other
smartly dressed ones who sound as If
they had learned about life from
Noel Coward, are still as Wretched
inside as they are gay outside. They
talk. talk, talk about sex and what
a problem it is. They have a mad
and reckless game of sophisticated
post Office and the end OF the third
act finds them, as always, sorted out
by the author who fancies he could
teach nature a trick or two about
this-sort Of thing.
In the next Laughter From a
Cloud" the same people will be dis
arranged again by another play
wright. Where it all will end Is a
bit fuzzy at the moment, but 1t
should not be long now before word
gets about that these people are IN
q preposterous rut.
4 4
If there is new thing to be said
In the situation Riggs conf1scated
from those earlier authors, it did not
turn up in last nights performance
of Laughter From a Cloud"
Miss Chase, fast actress with a
brittle line, sometimes achieves the
effect of having said something you
have only almost heard before on
the subject. Then it comes back that
Tallulah, Gertie, and scores Of others
said the same thing to you when all
of you were younger and more full
of fire.
Beyond Miss Chase and her glib
way with this version Of the bees
and the flowers, the rest Of the COM
pany is quite slick, too. Naturally,
also. it is handsome and expensively
dressed, otherwise people in the audi
ence might get the notion there IS
no reason why they should not have
the same kind of fun themselves.
This, of course, would be anti
social.
r Il \ \
Miss Chase, to be sure, is the
principal participant in Riggs fable
She Is an artist, rather a good one
it seems until she got terrifyingly
tangled up in things, two things.
One was a second marriage that did
not pan out because the husband
used her painting time to phllander.
Being the quite reckless type, he
finally got involved with Fannie VINO
happened to be the wifes best
friend.
That is bad, but what does the
poor painter do but make 1t worse
through the mishap Of going for q
walk one day in the mountains.
There. she sees, or thinks she does,
a primitive rendering OF her own
case history by an irate mountaineer
who carves up his wife and her lover
and tosses them to the high, hard
winds of the hills.
None of this Is treated sadly IN
Laughter From a Cloud" On the
contrary, 1t is all handled as joke,
much longer than the one about the
shaggy dog.
The setting of the joke Is .
house party in the synlbolicallyl
primitive atmosphere OF the Nambe
Valley, near Sante Fe. The Indians
have been driven out of this area
by the invading artists. There Is
absolutely no interruption. there
fore, while the wife and her pretty
actress friend and the erring former
husband thresh (sic) out their
scrambled lives. The actress, a
lovely wanton, Is q good sport, IN
ethe higher sense of the word, when
It comes to a showdown.
Naturally, In such a setting, one
such triangle would hardly be
enough to illustrate the point the
playwright has to make. Laughter
From a Cloud" quite unnigardly,
offers another in the affair of the
painters brilliantly blooming daugh-
ter. This is wise child, but don't
think she does not have her uncer-
tain moments, just like mother,
making up her mind between a
nighboring steer raiser and a visit
ing H. raiser who understands
each better than ne understands
people.
X X II y
Polly Rowles as the actress joins
Miss Chase in never letting down a
single comedy possibility of Laugh