(2 of 5)
4) I attempted to explain nothing to the critics, before or after the opening, except the difficulties of finding theatre forms for a play which dealt with an entire class as hero.
5) A very debatable point—not a fact—is whether it is true that "Manhattan's reviewers habitually bend over backward to give radical drama the best possible marks."
6) The clear inference then follows that for this reason, "Odets was again declared to be the most promising playwright in the land." Because of being considered a radical writer? That is a very cute but unfactual sentiment, whimsey, mates, whimsey!
7) And nowhere did The Group make the statement that it "has faith in Paradise Lost." That's all. Otherwise TIME'S reviewer has most of his parts in place. It should, however, be pointed out that to isolate a play's demerits is not to critically evaluate.
CLIFFORD ODETS
New York City
1) TIME said the furnace man in Paradise Lost "goes around shouting questionable blank verse." To TIME'S reviewer, the following sample soliloquy certainly sounded more like "questionable blank verse" than common speech:
"Citizens! Let me talk out my heart! Don't stop me! Citizens, they have taken our sons and mangled them to death! They have left us lonely in our old age. The bellyrobbers have taken clothes from our backs. We slept in subway toilets here. In Arkansas we picked fruit. I followed the crops north and dreamed of a warmer sun. We lived on and hoped. . . . The American jitters! Idealism! There's for idealism! For those blue-gutted Yankee Doodle bastards are making wars while we sleep. . . ."
2) Whatever Playwright Odets' intention was in mentioning Playwright Chekhov in the letter he sent Manhattan reviewers on the eve of the premiere of Paradise Lost, his words were: "Our confused middle-class today, which dares little, is dangerously similar to Chekhov's people. Which is why the people in Awake and Sing [also by Odets] and Paradise Lost (particularly the latter) have what is called a 'Chekhovian quality.' "
3) The eloquent furnace man suggested "maybe we ought to take the government over in our own hands," was labeled "Communist" by two Manhattan newspaper reviewers, was considered a "Red" by at least two characters in the play. If the furnace man was not a Communist, Playwright Odets certainly made him out a likely candidate for the Party.
4) TIME will not volley opinions with Playwright Odets as to why he sent his pre-premiere explanatory letter to the reviewers.
5) TIME points to the record of respectful criticism which many an unsuccessful proletarian drama has received in the "capitalist press."
6) For TIME'S estimate of Playwright Odets, stripped of all his inferences, see page 13, TIME, Jan. 6.
7) TIME regrets its careless misquotation of the Group Theatre's advertisement. The Group Theatre was "proud to present" Paradise Lost. "That's all."—ED.
Bird
Sirs: