New Play in Manhattan

The Bad Seed (adapted from William March's novel by Maxwell Anderson) will not be easily dislodged as the season's most harrowing drama. It is the tale of a sweet, golden-haired, eight-year-old girl who, when crossed or cornered, indulges in murder. But its various homicides do not begin to exhaust its horrors. Slowly, tormentedly, the little girl's mother becomes aware of her daughter's nature; then she discovers that her own mother was a mass murderess also.

In its recital, its crescendo of horrors--some of which it would be unfair to reveal --The Bad Seed has gripping scenes and many chilling moments. And the play's quasi-realistic tone, its reassuringly middle-class atmosphere, enhance the sense of horror, often impart that sudden eeriness of the familiar, that peculiar credence of the incredible. And the play gets the accomplished acting it needs. As the child. Patty McCormack brings a convincing naturalness to her studied evil-doings; as the mother. Nancy Kelly fully and keenly expresses the role without ever merely exploiting its opportunities.

The Bad Seed has, however, its shortcomings. It does not sufficiently hew to the line; it does not properly keep to a level. A faithful enough adaptation of March's novel, it yet has characters and scenes that, on the stage, make for slackness and dead spots. And it loses in intensity from having too many themes and too full a bag of horrors."

Into the theater's greedy maw has gone too much; what emerges, however hardhitting, seems' too meaningless. For all its force, The Bad Seed betokens neither art nor life; for all its grimness, it can only be classified as entertainment.

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