New Plays

The Half Caste is one of those seethingly tropical things which sound suspiciously as if the author had never been nearer Pago-Pago than a ukelele store. It tells of a fine young U.S. yachtsman who falls in love with one of the island damsels. Later she turns out to be his half sister. A dancer* named Veronica has the leading role.

Kongo is also tropical, and it too seethes. It is surrounded and all but smothered in a wealth of Africal detail from tom-toms to a native girl who wants a kiss-kiss. In the midst of this jungle of atmosphere is a huge man (white) paralyzed from the waist down. He is bent upon revenging himself on a man (also white) who has wronged him years before. The play is remorseless, obvious and undeniably effective. Sufficient portions of sex are, of course, added. It will serve nicely for those who now and then like to take the whole evening off and just go native.

Bride of the Lamb. Every so often and ever since Ruin the playwrights have been putting a tentative foot on the thin ice above the deep affinity between sex and religion. Now a playwright, William J. Hurlbut, has stepped full on it and there are some who say that it will break and he will be found thrashing around with the police. Some of these say that he has written a great play and some that it is cheapened by the obviously sensational. All were bound by its spell.

A mid-western town in the throes of a revival meeting is the locale of the play. A strapping shouting preacher (Crane Wilbur) is king of this overwrought community for the time. A tired, unhappy woman (Alice Brady) falls in love with him and mistakes her passion for religious ecstasy. As her mind falters under the furious lash of her misinterpreted desire, she kills her stupid husband. Then she goes mad.

So strong is the stuff in this play and so afraid are certain people to deal with truth that cuts and burns at training and tradition, that they walk out--three or four of them--at nearly every showing. Bride of the Lamb is blasphemous.

These things are, however, simply introduction to the major matter. That is the performance of Alice Brady. In one marvelous and uncanny bound she thrusts herself ahead of all other players, male and female, for the season. Sound and discerning folk have called hers the finest performance they have ever seen.

* Uncharitable critics termed her contortionist.