Evening star., 1951-12-16
The Passing Show
The Passing Show
Poetic PloyWrights
Go Right on Writing
Way Is Hard and Rewards Fewer,
But, Like Anouih, They Work On
By Jay Cormody

The surprise many sensitive humans 60 on writing
The nensitve gamblers betting
literal reports life their broad Jokes will the
public fancy and make them rich
involved failure and nature armed them with the
toughness to accept BOTH These the addcs and there
little need to give them second thought
Is different with the other smaller group They
ve artistic and deasc They write plays because they want
something might possibly shed moving light upon
dark corner of human experience.
Fry Looks ot Good and Evil
Christopher Fry in the recent "a Sleep of Prisoners
Humans prisoners of the evil in their
and would not be wise of them wake themseves
difficult thing to say with clarity if one wanted
also excngy that upon
1t and remember.
So for the pains he share feeling
every Fry accused of being obscure pretenou and
other things that have made there
little about world sleeping prisoners Perhaps
after ALL they simply do not want their sleep disturbed
Now Jean Anouih. another poetic playwright,
Legend Of Lovers He is not being quite profound Fry
Anoulh is content to reec paraphrase of the Orpheus
He has in the spirit of discoverer truth
who would merely like to resate old and often forgot
matte. he wrote play called Legend of Lovers.
Does All the World Love Lovers?
All the world will not share his love for this opheu and
heless his chances better than Lovers
resting watch than humans wrestling with evil
Lovers wree with each other and together against
fate. This sort OF contest is easier to follow.
Anouih has not made 1t too easy however surface
his Eydce and opheus are commonplace enough lovers The
girl played with such mercuray shifting mood by Miss Mcclure
soed destroyed beauty
and ecstasy romantic love- That destruction
that with exaation ends with tragic
only death eface life's degradation
Where Anouh caculatedy risks infuratng large Of
his audience is in refusing to write play about love affair
strolng musician this
little symbol of the inescapabe into which
humans are betrayed by their passions
Deoth on End to All Betroyos
This he will happen to them long they live
this is life and the escape from it is death.
In Legend of Lovers he does not want to be poet talking
to himself, but end anxious and
necessary infurate listeners possible
He has written the of play that difficult every
for the playwright the players the director and the
T. S. Eliot did the thing The Cocktail Party
Williams in Summer and Smoke Arthur Miller in Death
Salesman (even the movie does what Willie Loman sod)
and "The Lady's for
Whether it will be the of three Of these the failure
of Summer and Smoke remains to its
condition there defects Legend always
plays rich in what they be their possible
effects director and players still striving find
much to what effect reach with all the power they
muster
Ploy Bright Success in London and Poris
Anouih play bright in Paris and in London
In each acceptance for its mordant
prepared by the cenys kein of catastrophe Or
have been merely that European heatergoers willing
listen to POLITICALLY unconventional playwghts interesting
way of saying what he has to say.
There enough of the latter type this country
supported similar plays those
confusing it is being in its out here Legend of Lovers
well find them
The Theater Guild confidently joins Anouh in the risk