The Southwest Corner

Like the sturdy Vermont farmhouse which gave it its title, The Southwest Corner has many more strengths than weaknesses. John Cecil Holm has created a thoughtful framework out of light material. His rather effective come tragedy is due almost entirely to sharply chiseled characterizations. For dramatically, the playwright's adaptation of Milder Walker's novel is somewhat shaky. His arrangement of ideas and characters is less clear-cut than her original fashioning of them. But masterful acting by a woman, not the heroine, buttresses this one weak timber, and makes The Southwest Corner a skillfully executed play.

The issue of the play is a timeless one: country virtue vs. city materialism. A dignified but homespun Vermont woman suddenly gains as a living companion on her farm a plump, middle aged woman from Dedbam, Mass., who speaks through her nose and adores TV. The latter can hardly appreciate an old woman who reminisces about the boarded-up southwest corner of her house, just because it was once the parlor of her family. A conflict of values is inevitable.

This first act establishes the setting of the play, but without logical order. The dialogue is choppy, because each character blurts out a new fact rather than building on a previous one. Holm also bypasses a dramatic opportunity when he does not take full advantage of a storm in order to make the Vermont woman pathetic.

Although Eva LeGallienne has the role of Mrs. Elder, the farm woman, she does not come up to her usual standards. Only her position is pathetic, not her acting. She does not vary the pace of her speaking enough; and consequently, her several poetic outbursts lose their effect. Still, her loftiness shows good insight into the demands of her part.

Considering the acting, the real heroine is Enid Marcy as the woman from Dedham. Had she only repeated her lines, she would be a characterization rather than a character. Instead, she restrains the humor of her position and substitutes a touch of pathos. This fact alone changes her from a shallow critic of homespun virtue to a character equal in strength to her companion.

The mediator between these two conflicting forces is a sympathetic but misunderstanding hired hand. Parker Fennelly impersonates to perfection a cracked-voiced Yankee, and in view of the practice he has had as Titus Moody on the Fred Allen Show, there is little wonder. But because he is meant for comic relief, Holm should have given him more humorous lines, especially at the beginning.

As director of the play, George Schaefer takes ample advantage of the ties between three very different characters. In fact, the polarity of these relationships is the play's chief virtue. It provokes laughs when laughs are necessary, and when skillful acting steers the comedy, The Southwest Corner has a tragic tone as well.