The Theater: New Plays in Manhattan, Jan. 10, 1955

The Flowering Peach (by Clifford Odets) tells, very much in its own way, the story of Noah. His scene a kind of historical no man's land—so long as there is any land—Odets chronicles a family whose habits and dress seem less Biblical than bohemian and who, with their slangy ways, seem more modern than ancient.

They are perhaps meant to seem agelessly racial. Noah may be hooted at when he first reveals God's warning of the Flood; but he is to be feared and obeyed, and can force a reluctant Japheth—who resents God's cruelty...

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