COLOURED DEITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 974, 17 May 1930, Page 29

COLOURED DEITY

Praise Showered on Negro Play and Cast A REAL MIRACLE PLAY The Deity is represented by a coloured man in the most successful play produced in New York for a long time, and in every circle praise, not protest, is being showered upon the Negro cast of SO persons, and on the white author. The play is “The Green Pastures,” at the Mansfield Theatre, and it is impossible to get seats of any sort for weeks ahead. The author and producer, Marc Connelly, a 40-year-old journalist and playwright, calls it “a fable.” It is a real “miracle play,” written in the 20th that in spiritual power, in homeliness—l use the -word in its English sense—and in dramatic force, represents all that was best in the “Miracles” of the Middle Ages, writes a New York critic. The general public has agreed with the dramatic critics that here is something entirely out of the ordinary, in which is presented, practically without an artistic flaw, the religion of the coloured race, revealing how much that is in it of universal truth. The support given to “Green Pastures” is another sign of growing interest in the Negro, while the play itself is a striking example of the manner the coloured actor has arrived as a serious dramatic artist. “Fish Frys” in Heaven “The Green Pastures” is an attempt to present in living terms the religion of thousands of still - untutored Negroes of the Southern States, whose spiritual hunger has led them to picture vividly to themselves the Bible stories in terms of their everyday life. If “fish frys” (or bean-feasts are the brightest events in their lives, then there must be “fish frys” in Heaven. If old Dr. Du Bois, the preacher in the township, is the figure they associate with being more like the Deity than anyone else, then there is no incongruity to them in picturing the Lord as Dr. Du Bois. And, strange to say, the audience feels no incongruity -when it sees Lord appearing as the kindly, yet strong old preacher in frock coat and white tie. He takes part in His angels’ rejoicings, and lets the little black cherubs pull His coat-tails. When He walks the earth He rewards Noah, the one righteous man in the negro community, with a cigar—“it’s a ten-cent cigar, Noah” —in appreciation -of what the patriarch is trying to do to keep the village straight. Man may make God in his own image, Jjut there is somewhat of the true mystic about the negro, learned though suffering. The Deity who walks both Heaven and earth may have a man’s form, and may he a God of justice, but He is shown as a God of mercy and of loving kindness also. Mr. Harrison’s Acting Mr. Connelly was daring in putting the Deity on the stage. His faith, however, was rewarded by finding the right man for the right part. Indeed. “Green Pastures” rests on the should ers of Richard B. Harrison, who, without a false note, because of his complete repose and restraint combined with strength, represents the Father of Mankind. Mr. Connelly is a Pennsylvania man by birth, and for some time was a Pittsburgh journalist before he went to New York, and co-operated in the writing of such plays as “Merton of the Movies,” “Dulcy,” and other lighter plays. The only play he himself has written alone is “The Wisdom Tooth.”

Diana Forbes Robertson, the youngest daughter of Sir Johnson Forbes Robertson, has made her first appearance on the stage in London in the allstar production of “Hamlet/*