New Plays in Manhattan

Haiti (by William Du Bois; produced by James R. Ullman under the auspices of the Federal Theatre). Last week Harlem stole some of Broadway's thunder. The Federal Theatre offered Haiti there with a half-white, half-Negro cast, and a half-white, half-Negro audience united in applauding it. The vivid set was the work of Perry Watkins, the only professional Negro stage designer in the U. S. Playwright Du Bois (Pagan Lady) has plundered-- and partly falsified--history for a swift, swaggering, shoot-to-kill melodrama about the Haitian Negro uprising of 1802 under Henri Christophe.

Under slaveborn Dictator Toussaint L'Ouverture** Haiti had achieved independence. Napoleon challenged it, later captured Toussaint; but his successor, Christophe, kept Haiti free, went on to become its president and king, finally killed himself with a gold bullet. Haiti limits itself to Christophe's (Rex Ingram) rebellion against the French, doubles the excitement with a story of a French officer's wife (Elena Karam) whose father is Christophe's Negro spy.

By soft-pedaling propaganda and modern meanings, by roaring straight ahead with pistol shots, slugfests, savage hysteria, explosions of Gallic wrath, Haiti becomes two hours' worth of good old-fashioned theatre. But one modern meaning arises spontaneously: When the Haitians win their freedom from the French at the end, the Negroes in the audience burst into frenzied, deep-throated applause.

Negro Actor Ingram, not to be confused with Director Rex Ingram (Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) has been on & off stage and screen for almost 20 years, played by far his greatest role as de Lawd in the cinema version of Green Pastures. Forty-two, 6 ft. 2 in. tall, 225 lb., he owes most of the vigor of his acting to the vigor of his physique and personality. A medical student as well as an actor, he confesses to finding his career greatly hampered because of his race, dramatizes his position by suddenly placing his dark-brown hand up against a white one. His two main interests: tuberculosis research in Louisville, Ky., a U. S. Negro theatre.

Who's Who (assembled by Leonard Sillman; produced by Elsa Maxwell). Elsa Maxwell, the plump swizzle-stick of Manhattan's Cafe Society, stood sponsor last week to Manhattan's latest revue. On opening night, most of Cafe Society found their seats quite nimbly in the dark, came through like little majors with applause. Bursting with bright ideas, Who's Who usually fumbled them in either the writing or the acting. Possibly Producer Maxwell would have considered it not quite suitable for the show to seem too professional.

A skit about the White House was hammed. Another, about the home life of the Lunts, appeared to be about acrobats. A piece about the rich unionizing turned shrill. Throughout there were very knowing references to Bergdorf Goodman, Countess di Frasso, the Racquet & Tennis Club, Manhattan's champagne country. Best touch: switchboard wires curling and writhing like snakes. Best performer: Comedienne Imogene Coca.

** In French, ouverture means gap. Toussaint took his surname from his ability to create gaps in the enemy lines.

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