New Plays in Manhattan

Melo. As confessed by its title, this play is a melodrama. It is also the first Manhattan presentation of a play by French Author Henry Bernstein (The Thief) and the third appearance of the season for English Actor Basil Rathbone. With two strikes against him for a pair of wild, unsuccessful swings he took in Heat Wave and A Kiss of Importance, Mr. Rathbone seems pretty sure of a base hit with Melo.

Pierre Belcroix (Earle Larimore), a journeyman musician, and his wife Romaine (Edna Best) are visited by an eminent amorist and violinist, Marcel Blanc (Mr. Rathbone). In no time at all the ancient triangle situation develops. As the curtain falls on Act I there is a charming scene in the virtuoso's apartment, with Miss Best lying in Mr. Rathbone's arms and humming Lehar's "Dein ist Mein Ganzes Hertz." In Act II, however, the affair becomes less idyllic. Miss Best tries to poison her husband while Mr. Rathbone is away on a concert tour. Detected by a doctor, she jumps into the most valuable body of water in the dramatists' atlas, the Seine. From this point on, Melo flags and falters. There is a tableau vivant around the dead woman's grave, followed by a long-winded scene at the violinist's home where the husband tries to get Mr. Rathbone to admit his philandering. Melo ends on an unclear and noncommittal note, possibly because plump, engaging Actress Best is killed off one act too soon.

Shortcomings of Melo can in no way be laid to its cast. Miss Best's interpretation is cool, crisp, sensible. She redeems a part which might very well become wretchedly maudlin. A sort of British Hope Williams, her outstanding U. S. successes have been in The High Road and These Charming People. Basil Rathbone, smooth, slick, debonair, slides through his role with his customary facility.

Precedent. On July 22, 1916, a bomb exploded during San Francisco's Preparedness Day parade. Ten people were killed, 40 wounded. Thomas J. Mooney and Warren K. Billings, labor agitators who had been prominent in unionizing street railway employes, were convicted of the crime. For the past 15 years liberal and labor organizations have been trying to get them out of prison. Thousands of dollars have been spent in propagandizing their cause, a thorn in the side of every California governor. Precedent is the first play in their behalf.

In presenting Precedent, Playwright I. J. Golden has turned the stage of the Provincetown Playhouse, experimental theatre where Eugene O'Neill's dramas were first presented, into a soap box. Only thinly disguised, San Francisco is called Queen City; Thomas J. Mooney is called Delaney. Discarding dramatic pretense, Precedent is a biased record of how a traction magnate has Delaney "framed," how the foes of Labor trump up evidence to send Delaney to jail and keep him there in spite of retrials, rehearings, appeals. In the midst of this great legal struggle, Delaney sits alone, an individual almost forgotten in a confused battle for an ideal. Here, and in the futile closing scene where Delaney sits in his cell planning, always planning for his release, Playwright Golden rises to dramatic heights almost in spite of himself.

Precedent, like Gods of the Lightning, the Sacco-Vanzetti protest piece, may not be a play at all, but it has the undeniable power of sincerity behind it, enough to cover any amount of dramaturgical flaws. After seeing it, you would have a hard time not taking one side or the other in the Mooney-Billings case, for a while at least.

Revival

Six Characters In Search Of An Author, rated by most critics as Luigi Pirandello's best play, was first presented in the U. S. eight years ago. Like all Pirandello plays, it is clouded with metaphysical vaporings. "What is Reality?" the dramatist asks. "What is Illusion?"

Just as a theatre manager is about to begin rehearsing a new comedy, an elderly man, his wife and four children (two are illegitimate) appear, beg for a chance to act the drama of their lives. They explain that they are the characters of an author who conceived them but never provided them with a literary vehicle. Accompanied by very little action and a great deal of discussion, the request of the six characters is granted.

The cast is excellent, bringing together Walter Connolly, as the theatre manager, and Eugene Powers,* as the father, for the first time since last season's Uncle Vanya. Eleanor Phelps, a young Vassar graduate, gives an excellent performance as the emotional elder daughter. Paul Guilfoyle (the erring son of Privilege Car) is commendably tense as the elder son.

*Not to be confused with Actor Tom Powers (Strange Interlude).

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