|
The Talley Method: Henry
Miller's Theatre,
February 24, 1941
New York Times, February 25, 1941
Ina Claire and Philip Merivale
Appear in 'The Talley Method' by S. N. Behrman at
Henry Miller's
By BROOKS ATKINSON
Although S. N. Behrman may believe that it is no
time for comedy, it is. It is certainly time for him
to stick to his last. In "The Talley Method," which
finally arrived at Henry Miller's last evening, he
writes comedy like a master and philosophy like a
mystic. After an act and a half of sapient humor,
which is brilliantly acted by Ina Claire and Philip
Merivale, he lets his heart run away with his head
and his comedy fly out the window. This growing
anxiety probably represents the way he feels about
men and women in the world today, but it does not
represent his gift for playwriting. His problem is
to make the two things behave as one in the theatre.
"The Talley Method" does not solve the problem.
* *
*
And that is a pity. For the first half of Mr.
Behrman's drama is as fine as anything he has
written. Taking a group of assorted characters who
represent various points of view, he reveals them
lightly and compassionately in the style he has long
since mastered. Dr. Talley, an eminent surgeon and
widower, supposedly, is on the point of marrying
Enid Fuller, a poet. The doctor's son and daughter,
who hardly know their father, regard the prospect
with some apprehension. But they need not. For, as
it turns out, she understands them much more
completely than their father can. Although the
doctor has a touch of genius in the world of science
where he can control the human material he works on,
he has no understanding of or pity for the world of
the sick spirit, which he cannot control. At one
time in its preliminary adventures, "The Talley
Method" was known as "The Mechanical Heart." Dr.
Talley has a mechanical heart. It does not beat in
the disorder of a headlong world.
* *
*
Obviously, this is a serious business. Dr. Talley
represents the mind that cannot be shaken out of its
complacence and the imagination that cannot cope
with the problem of the dispossessed. He condemns
everything that does not fit the pattern of his
personal life. Enid Fuller represents the plastic
mind that embraces everything it meets and the
imagination that goes out instinctively to suffering
and bewilderment. Since all this lies close to the
seat of anguish in the modern world, Mr. Behrman
naturally wants to declare himself. But that is
where his personal problem enters into his
playwriting. It is hardly possible to sit before
"The Talley Method" without realizing that his magic
of phrase and his agility of thought evaporate when
he assumes an earnest manner. When he sticks to his
comedy last, he writes with wonderful skill and
radiant integrity. Nothing in "The Talley Method"
reveals character so completely or reflects the
jangle of the world so accurately as the matchless
comedy writing in the first half of the evening.
* *
*
Mr. Behrman's problem is the actors' problem,
too. It would hardly be possible to imagine better
acting than the comedy sequences receive. As Enid
Fuller, Miss Claire plays with a kind of jaunty
sincerity that is remarkably exhilarating. She picks
roving wit out of the lines with superb dexterity.
She waits for the right moment and she underscores
the phrases with the right inflection. As the
surgeon, Mr. Merivale is enormously amusing in a
gruff and stumbling manner that creates the
character in a vein of true comedy. Hiram Sherman is
also richly comic as a shiftless scholar with a
sense of humor. When "The Talley Method" turns over
the comedy leaf and begins to set the world in
order, Miss Claire and Mr. Merivale act with less
distinction. And Claire Niesen, Dean Harris and
Ernest Deutsch, who play the three earnest parts,
appear to be acting with more decision. Perhaps it
is only because the drama has come around to their
point of view: When their side comes up they make a
good fight for it. What they are acting with
considerable passion, however, is something Mr.
Behrman wishes he could write if he were a couple of
other playwrights. As a master of comedy, it is his
business to knock a little sense into the world by
wit, humor and gleaming sapience.
The Talley Method: Henry
Miller's Theatre,
February 24, 1941 |
