Abstract

Drama

Three recent volumes of one act plays are valuable primarily as studies in modern stagecraft, although two or three of these plays are so original and well written as to merit recognition on their own account. In noting what has been accomplished by theatrical productions of the Harvard Dramatic Club, playwright George P. Baker cites "The Clod" as an example of a one-act play that later reached the professional stage through the Washington Square Players. "Plays of the 47 Workshop" include the ironic playlet "The Good Men Do," called by its author, Hubert Osborne, "an indecorous epilogue," since it treats of the wrangling and jangling of playwright William Shakespeare's family at his deathbed. This clever and cynical comedy proved sufficiently amusing to achieve a professional production at the Actors' and Authors' Theatre in New York in the early summer.