Winesburg, Ohio

Maybe people have heard too much about small American towns and sensitive young writers who finally break loose and go to the big city. Maybe that explains the only moderate interest generated by Winesburg, Ohio, which is not really successful despite throughly competent acting and directing.

But this obviously is not all. Look Homeward, Angel, a play that demands comparison with Winesburg, is one of the most powerful, touching dramas to have reached Broadway in years. And Look Homeward, Angel is also based on a famous novel about a sensitive young man's growing and groaning in a small town.

The relative power of the two plays in a way simply reflects the relative force of Thomas Wolfe and Sherwood Anderson--Wolfe a chaotic, massive, but overwhelmingly vital power, and Anderson a smaller, more controlled talent. Whereas Angel as a book has the solid core but lacks shape, Winesburg, despite its wellshaped phrases, has a weaker core. Therefore a stage craftsman can, by pruning and shaping, transfer and even intensify much of Thomas Wolfe; the only important element lost in making Angel into a play was the visible stagnation and oppressive boredom, which are communicable far more easily in a long novel than in a tight play. On the other hand, a craftsman working on Anderson has a nearly impossible job.

Christopher Sergel tried to do it, but except for a few character portraits, his play seems pale.

Anderson's book hovers, not altogether successfully, between being a novel about a small town and being a collection of short stories. The book leans toward unity only by having the same characters reoccur every now and then, by presenting most of the characters as similarly crucified by life, and by introducing most of the smaller characters through one person, George Willard, the sensitive young writer.

Although Sergel adapts and cuts the book freely, he has not come up with much unity or much of a plot: George is encouraged to leave home by his mother and restrained by his father and by his love for a rather unappealing banker's daughter,and then, ironically,by the illness of his mother. When she finally dies, he is free to leave.

The enormous set in and around which this takes place is a tour de force by Oliver Smith representing the Willards' hotel. Joseph Anthony uses the many playing areas quite ingeniously to create continuity despite the many scenes and characters, and again proves himself one of America's finest young directors.

The acting is generally genuine and well integrated, but there are, expectably, no outstanding performances in any of the rather routine roles. Wallace Action is particularly appealing and townsy as a pragmatic storekeeper, and James Whitmore, Leon Ames, Dorothy McGuire, and Claudia McNeil hold up other roles respectably.