Jeremiah (by Stefan Zweig; produced by The Theatre Guild). Biblical narratives have a way of being made into "plays" and coming out Biblical narratives. Jeremiah illustrates the jinx. When Zweig wrote it, as an Austrian pacifist in 1916, Jeremiah's thundering against Israel's war of conquest had tremendous timeliness. It might have tremendous usefulness today if it could be produced in Fascist countries. But simply as a play it is ponderous, labored, rhetorical. For the glow of Biblical diction it substitutes "Whither away?" and other pidgin Elizabethan. For the intensity of an ancient people, it substitutes stage mobs who jabber and shriek....
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