"Babylon Revisited"

With only eight days to work and ten dollars to spend, the Harvard Dramatic Club opened its series of original one-act plays Thursday afternoon with Peter Shoup's adaptation of the Fitzgerald short story, Babylon Revisited.

Shoup handled the mechanics of the adaptation skillfully, transposing scenes and localizing the action to a Paris hotel suite to maintain a rapid sequence of events. He makes his main points, however, with such economy that the audience hardly has time to become involved in the conflict before it is resolved.

For all its brevity, the dialogue does catch the Fitzgerald atmosphere of American expatriate life in Paris during the depression. Unfortunately, the two characters who most represent this slow degeneracy don't look their parts. Robert Reid--playing a painter who doesn't paint, but who does drink--is too youthful and well fed to be convincing. Likewise, pretty Jean Smith's portrayal of the seductress is believable only if the audience closes its eyes. They handle their liens well, but both could have helped their parts by staying up the night before.

Thomas Whedon, as the lead, had a difficult role: that of a man trying to rebuild his life after it went to pieces. His hulking, patient stance and his ungraceful motions put across the sincerity and the touch of despair that his part demanded. Whedon's delivery, however, was a little monotonous, particularly in the opening lines.

Mathilda Hills and Robert Heavenridge played husband and wife, and both were excellent performers. Miss Hills spoke her lines with restraint and a touch of the puritanical which Shoup intended. Heavenridge turned in the consistently best performance of the afternoon as an understanding but slightly intimidated husband.

The play deserves no less flattering a label than competent, but it deserves no more. While it catches the Fitzgerald mood it has lost the Fitzgerald power. If Shoup's adaptation were a bit more full it might add depth to a performance that moves too fast to be digested properly.

The New Theatre Workshop plans to offer up an original one-act play every week, using scripts submitted by students. Director Ellic Fuchs and Producer Sarah Canfield have demonstrated that they can turn out a low-budget performance. The big question now is whether their efforts will be justified by the undergraduate response.