Evening star., 1955-05-04

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ernment's first mental hospital.
This is a dramatization of Doro-
thea Dix's own life, but it is not
the f1attery implicit in it that
would please the woman who did
so much for the mental health
movement.
"Cry of Humanity" is NOV
ing play in a deeper sense than
moving" usually means in criti-
cal vocabularies. 1t is a COM
pletely absorbing experience to
watch the patient cast do-rec-
reationally and therapeutically-
precisely what Dorothea Dix in
sisted they could do if given the
chance.
AS for the creators of Cry
of Humanity" with whom this
reviewer PARTED after the play.
they could not be happier that
it is to have a television showing
May Is on MICS March of
Medicine" 1t is not merely as
amateurs suddenly given a
chance to act before video's huge
audience that they are pleased.
Much more important, it is
rather as mental patients given
a chance to show the world the
results of modern medicine that
they made the film version of
"Cry of Humanity"
For ID hours daily for five
days, they stood patiently by
while the NBC crew, under Cor
don Hessler, shot the picture.
These were actors, anonymous
as to name if not of face, with a
cause to which no group could
be more dedicated. They are
proud of a chance to help ration
alize the relationship between
the mentally i'll and the public.
So Dorothea Dix served in her
time, so they today.
Cry of Humanity" basically
recreational and only incidentally
psychodrama, is significant in
other ways than it's hospital CEN
tennial aspects and its filming
for television. 1t is to be a high
light of the program of the
hundreds of psychiatric leaders
brought here to observe the hos
pitfalls Tooth anniversary. 1t will
be presented to this group to-
morrow night.
The performance in Hitch
cock Hall seen by the Washing
ton critics and large audience
of patients was in the nature
of a dress rehearsal. 1t is
indicative of a vast and pains
taking degree of work, most
visibly evident in a wardrobe as
large and varied as that of an
extravagant musical.
CRY of Humanity" of course,
Is a period piece dealing with a
woman whose life spanned most
of the 18th century. This was
a passionate idealist whom the
patient actors. singers and
dancers could not merely ad-
mire but understand, for
Dorothea Dix also had her
problems.
1t is from Miss Dix's auto
biography-she was a prodigious
writer--that the patients wrote
their episode play, beginning
with her rejection in childhood
by parents who never bothered
to understand her uniqueness.
The patients insisted upon this
as the point Of take-off. Incl
IDENTIFY, despite the fact that
professional counsellors argued
for later beginning of Miss
Dix's life story in the interests
of a shorter play.
The cast which plays, and the
crew which manages. the AZ
scene "Cry of Humanity" is tact
fully anonymous but some of the
performances are enerossing.
There is for instance. the at
tractive couple which reads the
narration. each with IA thorout h
understanding of the task and a
quiet professional competence
In going about it. There is also
most impressively, the unnamed
handsome patient who plays the
prodigiously long, exacttng role
Of Dorothea Dix with an intense