CALLS MIRACLE PLAYS A UNIVERSITY TRADITION

If the Dramatic Club were to give no other productions than those of the English miracle plays, it would still have more than ample excuse for existence. These plays as everyone who saw them last year had hoped, are being established by this second presentation as a traditional adjunct to the University's Christmas. Their simplicity, beauty, and unassuming novelty stamp them with the impress of something more than mere entertainment; and scholarly interest and idle curiosity are transformed into a very real appreciation of quiet force and underlying dignity of feeling.

The plays this year show the improvement of experience. Not only is the movement of the scenes somewhat more unified, thanks to Mr. Burrell's efforts at adaptation in the wide range allowed him in the Towneley Cycle, but the roles themselves are in some cases taken by the same persons who acted them last year, and who bring to them a familiarity and a smoothness that adds greatly to the final sum of perfection. Mr. Little and Mr. Wardner are especially noticeable in this. And Mr. Snedeker as "Joseph" speaks his part with pleasing gestures and an excellent handling of his voice.

It is somewhat beyond the point, however, to mention names in such a case. Indeed, the unity of the acting and the pictorial effects, and the lack of any attempt at claiming individual attention is what makes these plays the complete and rounded productions that they are. One does not feel that he has witnessed a theatrical performance--but rather the passing by of a delicate fresco come to life from the fourteenth century. In substance, in production, and in sympathetic understanding, the Club's presentation of the plays is of the best. Certainly the custom, with such unique opportunities for music and setting as Harvard possesses, is an admirable one--and one that will be increasingly applauded and appreciated as time goes on.