New Plays in Manhattan

Love on the Dole (by Ronald Gow & Walter Greenwood; Maurice Barber, producer) was hailed after its London premiere two years ago as a dramatic event of first importance. Last week Manhattan first-nighters were inclined to agree, for once, with their British cousins.

Even before it reached the stage, Novelist Greenwood's bitter description of the miserable living provided by Government bounty had assumed something of the authority of a State paper in Britain. It was referred to by members of Parliament when discussing the plight of the "depressed areas." Novelist Greenwood, who had written himself off the dole with his book, became a public character. There was national rejoicing when it was announced that his new prosperity would enable him to marry the sweetheart of his threadbare days. This was followed by a general lifting of eyebrows when the marriage failed to come off.

A realist, Walter Greenwood gives his poverty-stricken story a fresh angle, distinguishes it from the monotonous, incredible heroics of most proletarian fiction. Main reason the wretched people in Love on the Dole are believable is that they spend little time trying to adjust the work to themselves. Barely surviving, they have their lives full trying to adjust themselves to the world.

Worse could scarcely befall a family than the woes that beset the Hardcastles of Hanky Park, a suburb of Manchester Father Henry, who steadfastly refuses to "go Bolshy," prays only for God to give him work. Son Harry wins 22 quid on horse race and gets a girl into trouble. Unable to subsist as a human being on her meagre wages, Sally Hardcastle (Wendy Hiller) snatches a few rewarding moment; out on a Lancashire heath with an agitato named Larry (Brandon Peters). When Larry is killed in an unemployed riot, Salb makes her final adjustment to a pitiless environment by becoming the "housekeeper" of a paunchy bookmaker named Sam Grundy. In the season's most eloquent tagline, Henry Hardcastle then sums up the hopelessness of the whole situation: "I've done me best, haven't I?

Director Reginald Bach, who play Henry Hardcastlc. insisted that Love on the Dole be keyed low. demanded from his actors the understatement which packs the play with dramatic dynamite. In the brief time she has been on the stage, no amount of directing could account for the amazing performance of Wendy Killer. An untrained natural, now only 21, she was playing in a Manchester stock company when Collaborators Gow & Greenwood found her. They selected her because she looked good in shorts and had the Lancashire accent necessary for the part of Sally Hardcastle. They got more than they bargained for because it was soon apparent that Wendy Hiller possessed mimic assets rare among seasoned actresses. Like Katharine Cornell, she has the trick of inflecting her voice in several keys. She handles her body with the articulate abandon of Elisabeth Bergner, who looks good in shorts, too. The Hillers, well-to-do Manchester cotton people, were opposed to Wendy's going on the stage. But if Hollywood lets her sail back to England after Love on the Dole is over, Broadway will be much surprised.

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