Special Production of "Faith Healer"

The performance of Mr. W. V. Moody's "Faith Healer" in Sanders Theatre on January 24 is the first professional production of a modern play by a Harvard graduate under the auspices of the University. Some years ago a group of amateurs gave, in Sanders Theatre by invitation of the Department of English, Professor Barrett Wendell's "Raleigh in Guiana." The recent performance by the Dramatic Club of Mr. Percy MacKaye's "Scarecrow" was the first presentation at Harvard of a play by one of the younger graduates already well known for his dramatic work. The ver- sion of the "Faith Healer" to be used at the Harvard performance is a complete rewriting of the play since its publication. Both the author and Mr. Miller feel that, while preserving all the merits of the original form, it is even better for acting purposes.

The time of the "Faith Healer" is the present. The place is an isolated farmhouse near a small town in the Middle West. A lonely shepherd, Ulrich Michaelis, wanders into a Missouri hamlet, where he heals through faith. How he lost his gift through love of a woman, and how he recovers it, are told in three acts of increasing dramatic intensity. Though there is a touch of mysticism throughout the play, and the spiritual element is strong, neither is allowed to dominate the dramatic telling of the present-day story. Michaelis, according to Mr. Moody's own description, "is a man of powerful frame, and his way of handling himself has the freedom and largeness which come from much open air life. There is, nevertheless, something curiously vague and indecisive in his movement. He has a trick of handling things, putting them down, only to take them up again immediately before renouncing them for good. His face shows the effect of sleeplessness, and his grey flannel shirt and coarse clothing are crumpled and neglected." The role of Michaelis is in striking contrast to that of Steven Ghent in "The Great Divide," but like Ghent's it calls for Mr. Miller's repressed style of acting and quiet authority. Mr. Miller as Michaelis, will be supported by a company as strong as the original cast which appeared with him in Mr. Moody's first play, "The Great Divide." It will be remembered that this play ran two years in New York. The "Faith Healer," as a play by one of the most prominent of the younger playwrights, dealing with subtle influences in modern life, is in more than one way representative. For its subject, its treatment and the acting, the "Faith Healer" should command a large public.

It should be remembered that all advance applications for tickets should be in the hands of Dr. K. G. T. Webster, 19 Ash street, by 6 o'clock tomorrow