Milford chronicle., 1959-03-13
Rehearsing For Play
At Wesley College
(continued from page onel

Davidson, Dover, Del; Georgia
Plastiras, Pottstown, Pa; Robert
Pettyjohn, Milford, Del; James
Gamble, Claymont, Del; Lois Nell
son, Murray Hill, N. j.
Like THE Hasty Heart, which
was touching story of lonely
Scottish soldiers discovery OF
friendship, The Curious Savage
is also salute to the spirit of
loving-kindness to ones fellow
beings. For John Patrick appears
to be a champion of the notion that
only those who can give as well as
take full-hearted friendship, can be
happy
This time his central figure is a
widow who, having devoted her
life to her husbands wishes, sud-
denly begins using the $10,000,000
fortune he has left her to satisfy
some pretty odd wishes of her own.
She dyes her hair blue, carries a
teddy bear everywhere, wears the
kind of hat she'd wanted since she
was 16, writes play and acts in
it to the derision of audiences.
Thus she learns that everybody
has a desperate need to indulge
some trifiling, foolish desire-and
she uses her fortune Happiness
Fund" to satisfy these longings.
For a flower peddler she buys a
tomb for his horse. For a garden
er she imports a box of dirt from
Italy.
These benefactions outrage the
curious Mrs. Savage's hardheaded
and practical step-children, who
pack her off to place where they
believe she can't spend any more
of the family fortune There she
meets, understands and loves a
happy fellowship of people who
have each found a harmless illu-
sion to mitigate an inner grief.
One is a woman who tenderly
cares for a rag doll as substitute
for her child who had died. An
other is a statistician who, dis
placed by adding machines, now
believes himself a great violinist,
saving away discordantly at the
least provocation. Another is a
homely girl who wants to be loved
and thought beautiful. Another, a
war veteran, whose emotional bat
tle-scar is so deep he pretends he
has a real scar on his face. Lastly
woman who got so mad when her
husband told her to shut up twen-
ty years earlier that she gave up
conversation for life, and spends
her time painting wavy lines in
tended for SeaScapeS.
These people have made a little
world of contentment and affec-
tion that seems nicer than the
world that they pretend is kept out
side by the bars on the windows of
the country house where they live.
Unlike those in the outside world,
these happy eccentrics respect
each others foibles, opinions, and
prejudices. They never criticize or
try to reform each other, or worry
about unpleasant things. They
have deep wells of loving kindness.
Thus these whimsical people,
each with a comforting bee in his
bonnet, are commentators on the
so-called normal world where
worry and completeness make
difficult the neighborliness that
everyone processes to admire, but
few are able to practice complete
ly. ''The Curious Savage" is a IA
BILE that shows the practical-mind-
ed being thwarted by those who
have found some Illusions better
than reality. The hilarious search
for $10,000,000 worth of bonds, con-
Quoted on a basis of Button, but
ton, who's got the button?" is re-
sponsible for what the N. Y.
World Telegram" called 'innum-
erable laughs that come with such
regularity as to give the play a
staccato rhythm"