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Biography: Guild Theatre,
December 12, 1932
New York Times, December 13, 1932
S. N. Behrman's "Biography," With
Ina Claire as a Theatre Guild Actress.
By BROOKS ATKINSON
Although Mr. Behrman's new play, "Biography," is
not as deep as a well nor as wide as a church, door,
it will serve. It is the somewhat nebulous story of
a famous woman of the world who upsets one part of
it by writing an intimate autobiography. Ina Claire
plays the principal role. Unless memories are fading
she has not appeared on the local stage since the
crackling days of "Our Betters," and it is high time
that that defect was remedied. For Miss Claire plays
with dignity, wit, poise and dexterity, tossing off
a line when a good phrase comes her way and loosing
a warm flood of emotion when the play is in that
mood. She is ably assisted by an excellent band of
actors in a performance which, paradoxically enough,
seems remote and tepid from a seat in the forward
half of the theatre. Even the most urbane of
comedies can sound half-hearted when a Theatre Guild
first-night audience is disdainfully examining it.
Taking a hint from several familiar personages, Mr.
Behrman is relating one chapter in the life of
Marion Froude, an artist. Although she is a
second-rate artist, she is famous for the celebrity
of her sitters, many of whom are reputed to have
been her lovers, also. Nov when things are going
badly, Richard Kurt, a belligerent magazine editor,
persuades her to write her life-story for the
news-stands. Simple as that sounds, it apparently
involves her first girlhood lover, Leander Nolan,
who is now running for United States Senator from
Tennessee. Nolan imagines that his name, connected
with hers, will destroy his chances with the prudish
electorate of his State. How this putative situation
reacts upon Nolan, his fiancée, his prospective
father-in-law, Richard Kurt and Marion Froude is the
burden of a capital third act.
Mr. Behrman can write comedies that shine with the
truth of character. Although "Biography" is not one
of his most lucid, it is one of his maturest
revelations of people. Especially when he has more
than two of them together his comedy has a volatile
spirit. Marion Froude, being "a big laissez-faire
girl," brings them all together. Whether they are
Bohemian, bourgeois or radical, they all find in her
something that puts them at ease and makes them
surrender. For she cannot find it in her heart to
take sides against any one or for herself. Through
her Mr. Behrman finds the common meeting-ground in
characters who fly at each other's throats when she
does not dominate the scene. Mr. Behrman's ideas are
not clearly resolved, or perhaps they are deeply
embedded. The play seems aimless and tenuous for
half its length on that account. But when Mr.
Behrman comes to grips with his people in the last
act his characters stand fully revealed. It is a
spectacle both comic and pitiable, for some of the
characters are hypocrites, some of them are
weaklings, some of them are passionately sincere,
and one of them is kindly and wise. In his last act
Mr. Behrman has taken his full measure as a modern
playwright. He has a height and a depth, to say
nothing of a skill, that few of his colleagues can
encompass.
Under Philip Moeller's patient direction the actors
give excellent portraits of character but the
performance seems strangely attenuated. In addition
to the radiant, heady acting of Miss Claire,
"Biography" includes a splendid, headlong portrait
of the radical young editor by Earle Larimore. As
the Tennessee candidate for the Senate, Jay Fassett
shows how a character can be developed from mere
fatuousness to humble sincerity. Arnold Korff, who
is out of the Reinhardt laboratory, brings comic
richness to the subsidiary part of a Viennese
melodist. Charles Richman is amusingly suave and
supercilious as a pompous Southern editor; and Mary
Arbenz plays well the part of his daughter.
The over-detailed duplex apartment in which all
these lives are introspectively, examined comes from
Jo Mielziner's observant drawing-board. For Mr.
Behrman has looked deep into the motives of a
strange medley of characters. Sometimes it is
possible to wish that he were blunter in the
statement of his dramatic ideas.
Biography: Guild Theatre,
December 12, 1932 |
