New Play in Manhattan

Our Lan' (by Theodore Ward; produced by Eddie Dowling & Louis J. Singer) is one more earnest, inept effort to picture the U.S. Negro on the stage as something more than a banjo-strumming, hosanna-shouting field hand. This one examines the struggles of a group of ex-slaves who are trying to hold on to Civil War land grants on an island off the Georgia coast. Without money or political know-how, and bedeviled at every turn by villainous planters, the Negroes doggedly stick to their freedom-loving principles as the forces of greed move in to destroy them.

Unfortunately, this simple story of faith is embellished with cliches. When the heroine "gets into trouble" and the hero volunteers to make an honest woman of her, things really get out of hand. Expert performances by Muriel Smith and William Veasey fail to halt the runaway.

The best thing about Our Lan', the singing of spirituals by the Joshua Lee choir, only serves to make the show's conflict seem more picturesque than poignant.

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