New Play in Manhattan

Devil in the Mind is a Russian play by Leonid Andreyev (He Who Gets Slapped, The Waltz of the Dogs). First produced by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1914, it tells the very abstruse story of a scientist (Leo Bulgakov, longtime member of the Moscow Art Theatre) who is in love with the wife (Mrs. Leo Bulgakov) of a novelist (Bruce Elmore).

Mr. Bulgakov has been previously warned that his profound cerebrations will unseat his reason, that he has ''a little devil in his mind." A prime symptom: His astounding fondness for a caged orangutan which he subjects to a minute character-analysis. After his pet orangutan dies and Mr. Bulgakov pays a visit to the novelist's wife, up pops the devil. The scientist feigns madness (a circumstance which will extenuate his crime), kills the lady's husband with a very heavy ash tray. Then follows Mr. Bulgakov's big scene, with a stage entirely to himself. It turns out that he really is mad. For 15 minutes he rants, chatters, tears his hair, sweats copiously, prostrates himself, gives a fine exhibition of ornate oldtime play-acting in the best tradition of Richard Mansfield's Dr. Jekyll. Aside from Mr. Bulgakov's energetic mumming, Devil in the Mind has little to offer an audience.

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