Theatre: New Plays in Manhattan: Mar. 18, 1929

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Conflict. Even at this late date the War's casualties continue very real in health clinics and on the stage. This is the story of the hero who won his halo largely through lack of imagination, only to find that it would not fit on the hatrack back home. It is an exceedingly interesting study of the blind arrogance of one of the War's own children in conflict with the equally blind forgetfulness of the world to which he returned. It just misses being a fine play. Its chances of success are greatly enhanced by the presence of Spencer Tracy as the hero, and Frank McHugh, whose characterization of a top-sergeant is one of the crack performances of the season. She Got What She Wanted. Evidently on the theory that if the triangle play has been successful the rectangle play should be still more so, George Rosener has written one about three men and a maid. Subtly done it might not have been bad, but Mr. Rosener apparently wrote it with a sledgehammer, and the cast plays it through a megaphone. The Earth Between. The latest play to fall into the hands of the experimental Provincetown Playhouse group is agricultural in background but cannot exactly be said to solve the problem of farm relief. It is a harrowing study of a widowed farmer and his almost maniacal desire to hold, against odds of youth and love, his young daughter. For his motives, see Freud. The play has a certain intensity of gloom, but much of its force is lost in clumsy ambiguity. However, it permits Miss Bette Davis to do an effective bit of acting as the daughter. For a curtain-raiser there is Eugene O'Neill's Before Breakfast. This is a one-act play with a single character—an embittered wife up to her ears in woe. It is one of Mr. O'Neill's earlier works and has all of his early melancholy weight. The cast, Mary Blair, did very well.

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