Judge — May 12, 1928 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ne coming of Birnam Wood te Dunsinane is as I nothi compared with the recent coming of Cherry Lane to Maedougal Street. Cherry Lane, as some of you may have heard, is the Green wich Village alley up which, in a sardine-box dubl i theater, a corps of young intellectuals for the violent jise of plays, te the deep im two seasons have been exhibiting cases of delirium tremens in the ¢ pression of themselves, their immediate families and eritics for the New Republic. Believing that the trouble with the Expressionist drama is that at times it expresses something, they have set themselves to the great pioneering task of correcting the evil by writing Expressionist: drama that expressed abso- lutely nothing. save perhaps their incompetence to write drama of any kind. For a while, the profes sional reviewers went down to east an eve at thes goings-on, but soon the agony beeame so acute that ida wholesale de they could no longer endure it. sertion ensued. And only the young men themselves, ir immediate relatives and the critics for the New Republic were left to occupy the seats. Well, that was over and done with, the reviewers said to more of this for us. Then, like and just as the last breath of relief had subsided. the Provincetown Playhouse, situated up a somewhat bigger alley in the Vill: Macdougal Street, crept up on the reviewers and them and called themselves; no damnonsense a porch-climber operating in the dark ee that goes by the name of bade down come sce something “Him.” by one E. Cummings. And what the reviewers saw was something t made the most imbecile proceedings in Cherry Lane take on the rich aspect of a philosophical treatise by Socrates. For utter yuff. this Cummings exhibition has never been surpassed within the memory of the oldest. play- By GEORGE JEAN NATHAN reviewer operating in) Manhatt It is illiterate, preposterous balderdash, as completely and unremittingly idietie as the human mind. when partly sober. can i tied as ay far revealed talent of ght to attract attention to himself by composing verse rid of all sense, rhyme and punetu: zine, “The author may be identi thus nan without any hy sort who has linin to use capital letters ind printing bis name in lower-case, and by con novel fecting a war the big kick of whieh con sisted in the use of a word hitherto more intimately associated with the lavatory than with literature Professing to detect genius in these obvious monkey shines. bh neoor two c s commentators have spilled ne ink in celebration of ¢ nings’ gifts, but all that the majority of eritics and laymen have been able to deteet in hi Stein in pants. a has been a sub-Gertrude revolt ridiculous adolescent. in against literary tradition with a hairy The affair exlled “Hin is author with the following ne introduced by the “Don't try to despise it, let it try to despise you. Don't try to enjoy it. Jet it 1 Don't try to it. let it try te understand y That'll give vou a faint idea of what to expect. If you need a further hint. Tomay report that the characters include an are named the Missing Link, Six Hundred Pounds try to enjoy y understand of Passionate Pulehritude, the King of Borneo, Second Shape. Mussolini, First) Centurion, Fourth Fairy, A Blonde Gonzesse. Nine Foot Giant, First Drunk, Virgo and Third Weird. and that amony the twenty-one scenes we find listed “old howard’s conception of roman villa,” “le pere tranquille” and “semicirenlar piece of depth.” With the production of such freshman junk. the Provincetown Play! (Continued on page 29) se loses all critical respect. Theatre Behind the * (Ritz) ‘Comicbooks.com