Two Plays by MacLeish

Mr. MacLeish's two plays testify to the great strength of his poetry and his versatility as a dramatist. But at the same time they clearly indicate some of the limitations of verse as a dramatic form.

Both are one act plays, the first concerned with the individual's search for peace within himself, the second with the blind actions of the mob mind. The Trojan Horse, presented second, is the better of the pair, because the audience is never aware it is hearing poetry, not prose. The play opens with the discovery of the Greek horse outside the walls of Troy. The Trojan populous, wanting to believe the horse is a good omen, refuses to heed the few who warn against it.

Edward Finnegan plays a blind man who, among all the people, most clearly perceives the danger, and his groping gestures, never over-emphasized, add much to the play's tension. He sees through the eyes of a young girl, enchantingly played by Susan Howe.

Michael Laurence dominates the stage in the role of a Council member who goads the crowd against the blind man and the girl. In the play's climax, Helen, played by Connaught O'Connel, stands at the edge of the stage speaking to the horse and its Greek occupants. In a voice that barely rises above a whisper, Miss O'Connel gives tremendous power to MacLeish's lyric lines.

While these sections of long lyric verse are quite effective in The Trojan Horse, some equally fine poetry in This Music Crept by me upon the Sea is not always good drama. The first third of the play is set in the tropics at a cocktail party, where long passages of meaningful poetry alternate with more prosaic conversation. The poetry itself is movingly beautiful; it fails only when it crashes against the earthy prose of the cocktail hour. The author faces with no such problem in The Trojan Horse, whose universality is well suited to the verse form.

The cocktail scenes in This Music held obvious difficulties for Director Mary Howe. She has not quite solved the problem of getting the player to the right spot when he must philosophize. As a result, the first scene of This Music is a little like a game of musical chairs. Heroine Amanda Steele has the same trouble. Her dreamy wanderings often seem unreal. She plays her part, however, with an understanding equal to that which she showed in her capable direction of The Trojan Horse.

The play's final scene, when Miss Steele and Michael Laurence find a moment of self-understanding under the spell of the island moon and their own love, is well done. Their conversation outside while a drunken party rages in the house is particularly effective, and the scene is marred only by a curtain that falls too long after they find themselves stymied in their attempt to escape, and are forced to return to their former lives.

With these two as the outstanding actors in This Music is Clive Parry, who handles his role of a jaded and cynical Englishman with dry wit.

Donald Mork did the settings for both plays. The simple arrangements of a column, some stones, and a backdrop in the Trojan Horse help create a bleak atmosphere while the house and garden in This Music are more orthodox as realistic sets.

Both plays are stimulating and satisfying; the sheer beauty of a great part of the writing is enough to smooth any rough spots in the mechanics of production. The Poet's group and Mr. MacLeish have formed a mutually profitable association.