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Rain From Heaven: Golden Theatre,
December 24, 1934
New York Times, December 25, 1934
Christmas Eve in the Theatre – S.
N. Behrman's `Rain From Heaven.'
By BROOKS ATKINSON
Out of the muddled tension of the contemporary
world S. N. Behrman has spun a silken drawing-room
comedy, "Rain From Heaven," with which the Theatre
Guild celebrated Christmas Eve at the Golden. Under
the rippling of the humor and the crackle of the wit
it has a few sapient words to say about Fascism,
Communism and Hitler's scourge of the Jews. Mr.
Behrman is the ideal writer of comedy of manners
because he never lets a joke go contrary to his
principles and he does not create characters for a
laugh. Lady Wyngate's house guests just outside
London represent nearly every shade of cultivated
intelligence of the Western World. For three acts
they talk with captivating grace and polite anxiety
about love, politics and the destiny of the human
race. If Mr. Behrman wants to break a lance for any
one of our aching causes he will have to bear down a
good deal harder and post his principles on a
placard where we can read them in literal words. But
for sheer dexterity of style and decency of motive
"Rain From Heaven" achieves an enviable perfection.
Mr. Behrman has a gift that the theatre has never
tarnished.
In "Rain From Heaven" he is neatly placing in
opposition a group of characters who have a social
resemblance but who represent antagonistic political
points of view. Lady Violet Wyngate is a wealthy
widow who has an instinct for championing lost
causes. She is in love with an American aviation
hero who, having just returned triumphantly from the
Antarctic, is innocent of almost every problem of
the day. Among her guests are a music critic who has
been exiled from Germany for illegal blood content;
a rich American who is fighting for a Fascist state
to safeguard his property; a Russian exiled by the
Communist dictatorship; a Rhodes scholar; a
promising Jewish pianist; a tenacious American wife
who does not love her husband, and her daughter,
whose cross is that she is in love.
Without leading them on by inventing noisy dramatic
crises, Mr. Behrman manages to turn his characters
completely inside out. His gift for dialogue is so
extraordinary that the process is marvelously
engaging. "Rain From Heaven" is a play without
action that gives the impression of skipping along
at a giddy tempo. Although nothing of cosmic
importance appears to be happening, the hostility of
the ideas is so keen that at the concluding curtain
Lady Wyngate's household of guests is quite
transmogrified. Ideas, stung by a little womanly
guile, have closed the gates on every character in
Mr. Behrman's cast. Although they are social equals,
their principles, prejudices and experiences in the
jangle of the contemporary world have shut them off
from each other. In its bright, dainty and luminous
way "Rain From Heaven" is tragedy in the parlor.
Mr. Moeller has directed an iridescent performance.
As Lady Wyngate, Jane Cowl, who has been one of our
recent absentees, gives an infinitely accomplished
performance in which charm is seasoned with
intelligence and compassion. John Halliday, who has
likewise been among the missing, returns to Broadway
to play the exiled music critic like an actor and a
gentleman. For avarice there is Thurston Hall, whose
wholeness of character statement is an asset in any
play; and for rueful good manners among Russian
emigrés there is José Ruben, who is one of the best
in the profession. As the wife with a serpent's
cunning it is to be feared that Lily Cahill has a
better figure than acting style. But that is the
only rigid corner in the performance housed by a Lee
Simonson setting. Mr. Behrman's comedy of manners is
full of glints and graces. Doubtless it is wiser
than a hurried theatregoer can appreciate on the
basis of one holiday impression.
Rain From Heaven: Golden Theatre,
December 24, 1934 |
