6

barking on the following article that | gil Thompson with great pleasure, |

Page Six —

THE COLLEGE NEWS







‘saints half indoors

; nal :
Reviews interlocutors, and rushing to the foot-
: lights, said in a voice of excitement,



vs



~~) *just a minute,” ard rushed away. In
'a minute nothing happened.
The reviewer realized before em- we were listening to the music of Vir-

Four Suints in Three Acts

there are those far better qualified having managed to stop hearing Miss

to attempt a review of the opera by Stein’s nonsense and onto the stage

Miss Stein and Mr. Thompson. We came six Harlem snake hips artists,

do not assume an intelligence on our, who proceeded to do their stuff, with |
part equal to that demanded by the Alexander Smallens doing his best to! which he plays very well indeed. That |

eators of Four SAINTS IN THREE impersonate Cab Calloway in the or-

Ahkors. We offer the following as the chestra pit. The angels stood around,

_the great. showmen. of history,

frank opinion of a layman who spent around, around literally. half indoors
an afternoon at the theatre viewing and half outdoors and gazed énrap-
what she took to be nothing more tured until it was over and then went
than what it seemed to her. If we back to their games.
have allowed the work to pass quietly! As for the action, then, we are not
over our head that is to our infinite jn a position to enlighten the general
discredit and certainly not to that of public. The program placed the four
the artists involved. But, we may say acts as follows: I. “St. Theresa half
in defense that we have read the arti- indoors and half outdoors.” II.
cles-of the better. critics and have dis- “Might it be Mountains if it were not
cerned in them no profound under- Barcelona.” III. “Barcelona: St.
standing of Miss Stein and her work. Ignatius and one of two literally.”
After three hopelessly. confused IV. “The Saints reassembled and re-
hours spent at the theatre watching enacting why they went away to stay.”
an excellent negro cast perform Ger- There you have it.
trude Stein’s opera, Four Saints | For us the high light of the after-
Three Acts, we came away with the noon was the music, which would have
conviction that, together with Tex been much more enjoyable if Gertrude
Rickard and Barnum and Bailey, Miss | Stein had never come into the picture
Stein stands at the “head of a list of at all.. The voices are splendid, and
who the choruses have been trained with
give the public their money’s worth) an eye to the spiritual strain in the
even if the tender offered is worthless. music. Mr. Thompson has taken his
Perhaps we are not in tune with the inspiration from the Gregorian chants
modern trends in art and music, and and created a score admirably suited
perhaps we are simply stupid and il- to the negro voices. Mr. Smallens
literate, but after the twenty odd: conducted the orchestra with great

saints had cavorted around the stage’ skill] and the third act, in which a pro- |
for each of the four acts we were con- cession brought the complete cast into

vinced that Miss Stein has succeeded action, was the great musical moment
in perpetrating the most gigantic of the afternoon. The musical side of
hoax upon the American public that the production is in a way reminiscent
has seen the light of day since Steve of Green Pastures, as regards the
Brodie either did or didn’t jump off use to which the negro choruses are
Brooklyn Bridge, Four Saints in: put.
Three Acts is amusing because it is words the music would be sufficient re-
mad, and it is diverting because it is ward for an afternoon at the 44th
different, but it is not significant. To Street Theatre.

that statement the more determined; ‘yo staging of the opera is effect-
aesthetes will not agree because they! su and-manages to be different and
have been so hoodwinked by the whole i “modern” without being ridiculous. In

performance that they prefer to think other words, the staff which has taken ;

they understand it, and that those the words of Miss Stein and has put
who do not are insensitive and unin- them on the stage as an opera has

telligent. We are frank to admit that gone a very good piece of. work the-
we did not have the slightest idea | atrically. They are all sound crafts-
what was going on from the opening’ men and their work has the stamp
to the final scene, but'we joined in of competence which even the words

the game and énjoyed ourselves. Per- and the general idea cannot obliterate.
haps those who do net understand the The cast is magnificent, and it isto

opera should not attempt to comment the endless credit of the negroes as
upon it, but it is our conviction that', conscientious race of: artists that
in that case not a word would appear ‘the actors play their parts with con-
in print on the subject. 'viction and sincerity, although the
As for the opera and what went on.’ poses into which they fall and the
The first act, so the program tells us, words they speak are patently beyond
is “Avila: St. Theresa half indoors them. The cast gave Four Saints in
and half outdoors.” The curtain rises Three Acts a convincing performance,
on a very effective scene with the cast and as we sat listening to them go
of negro saints and (we suppose) an- through hours of singing nonsense we
gels assembled either in the moun-|could not help wishing that a sincere
tains or close to them. The mountain| craftsman had written what they
atmosphere is supplied by a cello-| were engaged in projecting.

phane cyclorama provided by the Du- We enjoyed the opera, but the time
pont Cellophane Company in high

If one could only blot out the’



" =
and half outdoors | absorbed in the action and involved in |
‘came one of what we took to’ be the|the varying emotions as they were'

projected before us.

| The’ story concerns a_ gentleman



‘farmer who lives happily in York

Again ‘shire with his younger brother (Derek ‘

| Williams), his maiden sister (Mar-
jorie Fielding), and his very grand
‘wife (Adrienne Allen).. He divides
| his time contentedly between the
‘breeding and riding of horses, and
the more sedentary delights of Bach,

does not detract from the. pleasure
!with which David (Raymond Massey) |
lives his life, for Judy has taken good |
care to see that he should never dis- |



cover that lack gf deep affection for |
her. Into this atmosphere comes Mar- |
‘iella Linden (Gladys Cooper) as the:
'wife of an older brother, and the dis-|
‘aster which the audience senses as
‘part’ of her lugguage is not long in|
‘making its appearance. In the words
of Judy, there are always people in’!

the world who seem to be made for |

one another and David-and Mariella '
‘are the examples that prove the rule. |
| Having no desire to bring tragedy and
‘unhappiness in her wake Mariella |
‘fights against the love that she can-
‘not long resist, but in the end her
| Struggles are cut short by the sacri-
fice of Judy, who steps under the fall-|
ing wall: of a. barn...In the last act.

‘David makes a determined attempt to|
put aside all thought of Mariella as!
‘a penance for- the tragedy he has!
caused, but she points out to him that
‘in that case Judy would have died in‘
‘vain, for she had no desire to stand |
in the way of his ultimate happiness. |

The ending is left more or less to,
one’s imagination, for Mr. Winter is!
not one with, the school of dramatists |
that believes that the audience should |
be forced to pursue every train of |
action to its bitter end.

Seldom, in our opinion, has as com-!

/petent a cast been gathered tégether

_Lexacting,-and_the new. plan does not

he is not actually in love with his wife :
y . 'free units.to take them.

‘suggest that the system of Allies

‘ed courses *ghould not be gequired of |

spirits. A robin’s egg blue, it remain-
ed with us throughout and with the
change of lights in the different acts
provided an excellent background for
the shifting saints.

The Saints Theresa were attired in
in tomato red velvet, with huge tomato
red 1890 hats, from the edges of which
dangled gold tassels. They came upon
us separately—the second one under
rather peculiar circumstances. We
were fascinated by a curtained bower
effect in the middle of the stage dur-
ing part of one scene with the. first
St. Theresa when someone stepped up
and uncurtained the thing and there
was the second lady serenely painting
a big pink Easter egg pinker.

St. Ignatius, played by Edward
Matthews, was more modest in his
maneouvers and did nothing spectacu-
lar other than be his Steinesque self.
As to what the four acts were about
we are still in the dark. ‘ There were
changes of locality, and apparently
something was going on but for the
life of us we couldn’t find out what
it was. Miss Stein did her best to
enlighten us in the dialogue, and
through the words to Virgil Thomp-
son’s music, but we just did not catch
on. We were informed, for example,
in a tense moment by .a very serious
saint, that “the Envelopes are on the
trees,” “that St. Theresa was literal-
ly,” and that there were “many pig-

eons on the grass, Alas.” At another

point in the proceedings the music

ose to a crescendo, and the ensuing



silence was charged with electricity
for us—what next? Then out from
the wings and through the mass of

spent in the theatre did not change! play was that Judy was a swell per-

our belief that Miss Stein is an eX-' 04 and that the fact that David pre-
tremely clever woman, who has plumb-' torred another was another bit of evi-

ed the gullibility of the American edence of the abyssmal stupidity of
public to its depths and discovered anijon who never know when they are
easy way to make a name for herself well fixed. In spite of a very sympa-
and a lot of money at the same time. | thetic performance by Miss Cooper

No one will ever challenge her own 4s Mariella it was with Judy that’ we
hggheyenta - — pe pa :. |found our greatest entente, and we did
fellow Boivage oot aa he 26 Sea she |2ot accept the inevitability of David’s
didn't know the meaning of what meio fue ith the equanimity of Judy.
wrote beyond ‘that th bli 1 are us this failure of the playwright
tine fo 9 bai v “5 pa et ae ito attach the major portion of the

ough aye Re iS streets Ae, (audience's sympathy to Mariella was
cgi <7 —the woman next tO’ 4 flaw in the construction of the play,

us followed the entire opera with '¢ , :
the Scord!—S. J. ‘for unless Mariella occupies the role



The Shining Hour |

There are two schools of thought}
concerning The Shining Hour, the|young brother and the very real grief
play whose purpose it is to convey|which he felt over the death of his
the tragic and the comic aspect§ of sister made us feel very closely con-

life in Yorkshire when the placid at-|nected with the Linden family at that
-mosphere of the country is disturbed

by the arrival of ‘a lovely half British
and half Dutch lady. There are those
who credit Keith Winter with having
written a sincere and moving play
which betrays not only an accom-
plished talent on the par of the au-
thor, but a deep sense of the materials:
out of which God’s creatures are fash-
ioned. There are others who find the
happiness and the unhappiness of the
characters hollow and insincere, and
whose thoughts stray toward the ex-
its in the middle of the third act. We
belong quite frankly to the first cate-
gory, for we found ourselves deeply
interested in the fortunes of the Lin-
dens from start to. finish, and there
was not a thoment when we were not| -



later be done. The proposed compre-
hensive system is certainly not a step
in that direction.

; DIANA TATE SMITH.

LETTERS |



(Continued from Page Three)
|



change it in the direction of more
| freedom, , Each of us knows in what
‘lines her knowledge is deficient and
what she needs to learn in order ‘to
‘have a sound and intelligent educa-
‘tion. We have all had to omit many
(courses which we knew we needed,
‘because they did not ally with our
major subjects and we had not enough
I wish to

IN PHILADELPHIA



(Continued from Page Two)

Local Movies

Ardmore. Wed. and Thurs., Design
For Living, with Gary Cooper, Fred-
eric March and Miriam Hopkins, Fri.,
Zane Grey’s The Last Round-up, with
Randolph Scott. Sat., Paul Muni in
Hi, Nellie, with Glenda Farrell. Mon.
and Tues., A Man’s Castle, with Spen-
cer Tracy and Loretta Young. Wed-
and Thurs., Marion Davies and Bing
Crosby in Going Hollywood.

Seville. Wed., Goodbye Love, with
Charlie Ruggles and Vera Teasdale.
Thurs., Fri., and Sat., Carolina, with
Janet Gaynor and Lionel Barrymore.
Mon. and Tues., Paul Lukas and Elis-
sa Landi in By Candlelight. Wed.
and Thurs:, Flying Down to Rio, with
‘|Dolores del Rio and Fred Astaire.

Wayne. Wed., Carolina, with Janet
Gaynor and Lionel Barrymore. Thurs.,
Frontier Marshall, with George
O’Brien. Fri. and Sat., The Private”
Life of Henry VIII, with Charles
Laughton and the wives. Mon. and
Tues., Beloved, with John Boles. Wed.
and Thurs., Little Women, with. Kath-
erine Hepburn.

should be abolished, and that the lit-
erature, science, and philosphy requir-
péople who happen to have done a
sufficient and intelligent amount, of
work along those lines before enter-
ing college. None of us is so unintel-
ligent that she will fail to recognize |
the value of those courses and will!
refrain from doing more work along
those lines if she knows that she needs
the training.

I do not believe that college should
provide a specialized training in a
field which we should know sufficient-
ly thoroughly to pass a comprehensive
examination in it. Specialized work
cannot be done well by a great part
of the undergraduates: because they
have not the background necessary
for it, and are always feeling the
strain of doing advanced work when
they do not possess all the training
and: information that it presupposes.
It is not my purpose to suggest that
the major system should be given up
completely, nor that we should be let
loose to fiddle away our time in easy
courses, but I do believe that we should
be given more free units to fill up
the gaps in our knowledge and obtain
the sound background on the basis of
which really intelligent, worth-while,
and. valuable specialized work could



In letters sent to the undergraduate
political organization of more than
100 colleges and universities in vir-
tually every State, the Harvard Lib-
eral Cli deplores the failure of the
Senate Committee on Elections and
Privileges to bring action against Sen-
ator Huey Long and seeks a unified
student appeal for an immediate in-
vestigation of the charges brought
against him by the people of Louisi-
ana.—(N. S. F. A.)

















under oe roof to such mental advan-| ee 4 “
tage as in The Shining Hour. Ray-'| .
‘mond Massey plays the sensitive |
David with great restraint and with!
little of the aggressiveness that has |
made him overplay several of his parts |
of recent years. He does go a bit off |
the deep end when his nerves get the
better of him in the third act, and we
found it hard to believe that he could
lose control of himself to the extent
of reviling the dead Judy with such},
terrifying earnestness when he finds
that her death has barred the way to! N ay W eee G E T . E T
his possible union with Mariella. : :
There are those who feel that Mr.
Massey leers when put to it to por- To Telephone Home?
tray emotion and we must admit that
he gave us a bad start, once or twice You’veE dragged your furniture around...
when we thought the cadaver of Gid-
eon Wyck was with us once more, but and your room is fixed ... and you're all
he has a disarming manner to offset 5
the ghoulish expression he often straight on your schedule and text-books. One
wears, and for us it added rather than . ° o
detracted from the effectiveness of his more detail and you'll be set for the college
characterization. year.
| Adrienne Allen as the wife was al ,
lexcellent and the one conviction which It’s the telephone. Here are some simple
‘we never lost th hout th ti :
a ee ae matters to attend to for your own and the
| Family’s advantage:
: Locate the nearest telephone.
First > The Family will want to know
its number to call you if neces-
4 sary.
Look in the Directory or ask
Secon > the Operator for the Station to
. 4 .
Station Night Rate to your
- home town.
vi) J p> Make a “date” with the folks
uv
to telephone home each week.
: (At the same time, ask them
‘of heroine the play becomes a pro- : h
‘tracted exposition of the final tri- eyo my Forerer he eharee-)
jumph of vice over virtue. Fourl A) p> Make a It of the telephone
Derek Williams was excellent as the numbers of your home-town
friends. Ask “Information” for
those you don’t know. You
never know when you may
want to call them.
precise moment. The other characters
were well: cast and went about their |- ° =. an
business with the assurance and ease And the rest is easy. Just ere the Operator
which is a mark of distinction in the). the, name of the town and the number you
theatre of the present. The entire
performance possessed a distinction, want. If you telephone after 8:30 P. M. you
both in the writing and the acting, *
wtih WA Want ts Make Th Shag | can take advantage of the low Night Rates on
oe an important evening in the| ° Station to Station calls. These mean a saving
eatre. :
£7 of about 40 per cent!
The length of a man’s life can be
‘accurately predicted by an examina-
tion of his eyes, Dr. Felix Bernstein,
of Columbia University, maintains. It
is done by testing the “accommodat~
ing power” of .a person’s eyes. _ ig
™ —(N. S.. F. A.) ne