New ltalian film

Produced by Vittorio DeSica, whose picture
Italian film, “The Bicycle Thief” opened here t
cisco People’s World as “the moving story of the e

father’s stolen bicycle so that

‘BUT YE ARE THE PEOPLE’ PRAISED

he may retain his job.”

'

“Shoeshine” played to capacity houses here, a new
his week. The picture is praised by the San Fran-
fforts of a worker and his child to recover the

New play given enthusiastic —
reception at first performance.

THE AUDIENCE which packed
Clinton Hall here at the conclud-
ing session of the Vancouver Book
Fair last Sunday night to see But
Ye Are The People demonstrated
by its applause its appreciation of
a fine play ably presented by Van-
eouver Theater of Action. All a
review can add is some minor cri-
ticism which may help this young
progressive drama group in giv-
ing an even better performance
when next they present the play
—and it is hoped that they will
find ways of bringing it before the
far wider audience it deserves.

For this reviewer last Sunday
night’s performance recalled the
highly successful production here
in the thirties of Waiting For
Lefty bythe Progressive Arts
Players and later of Bury The
Dead — the anti-war play which
Irwin Shaw now fears to have
produced — by the old Vancou-
ver Theater of Action. With the
single exception of Awake and
Sing, successfully revived last
year by the UJPO Drama Group,
this city of a third of a million
people has had no opportunity
to see progressive drama for more
than a decade, although it has
many drama groups.

In one way, the Vancouver
Theater of Action’s venture into
full-length drama, after initial
success with a number of skits,
marks a step forward never taken
by any of its predecessors. It has
produced a play with a Canadian
setting, attuned to the needs of the
Canadian working people. And, in
Hal Griffin, it may have produced
a new Canadian playwright if the
promise of But Ye Are The People
is borne out.

The ingredients of But Ye Are
The People are taken from the
drama, of life as it is being enact-
ed in our Canada today.

Who, for instance, can fail to
see'in the mob of DP’s which
storms the home of Glen Martin,
publisher of the Riverton Glean-
er, after he has finally been forced
to take his stand with the locked-
out workers and the people who
make up the peace movement in
his town, the counterpart of the
violence in Timmins, Toronto,
Winnipeg and other cities?

UU TT TU UTTTATT TTT UHTAT RUHL TU
oo busy with life’
says Irish playwright

IN A recent letter to Bel-
fast Trades Council pledging
support for the peace confer-
ence which it is organising,
Sean O’Casey, famous Irish
playwright, wrote:

“Tet Churchill clasp the ate

om bomb to his bosom if he
wants to make it his guard-
ian angel—the homb before
me; the bomb behind me}; the
bomb on my right hand, and

the bomb on my leit hand—-

but we, the people, won't let
it come striking distance of
_us. We are too busy with life
to allow ourselves to be in-
terrupted by death.”

FC

It might be argued that in the
real life of today no publisher
even of a small town weekly,
would jeopardize his paper by dar-
ing to stand out for peace against
the pressure of big business inte-
rests. Yet this reviewer knows
of two weeklies in our own prov-
ince wh0Se publishers privately
admit their sympathy with the
peace movement. The difference
between them and Glen Martin,
the publisher who is one of the
main characters in But Ye Are
The People, is that Martin, draw-
ing strength from the strength
of the people, as epitomized by
Jim Macdonald, the strike leader,
does take his stand with the peo-
ple for peace.

Martin finds strength too, in his

‘pioneer, god-fearing grandfather
who supplies the answer to his

¢ son’s uncertainties and misgivings
both from his bible and William
Lyon Mackenzie’s “Address to the
Electors of York” — “ *. .. Be
firm and collected — be determin-
ed — be united — never trifle with
your rights -..’ That’s still the
answer, son.”

» * : *

THE CHARACTERS in But Ye
Are The People are convincing
precisely because they are drawn

from life, facing the centfal issue
of this time. That is why the cast
chosen by the Vancouver Theater
of Action, most of whom had never
been on the stage before, could
acquit themselves so ereditably —
the problems posed by the play
were only an extension of the
problems posed in their own lives.

Obviously, a great deal of hard
work must have gone into the
production and, allowing for a
certain stiffness and at times the
tendency of most of the players
to lower their voices which must
be expected of inexperienced ac-
tors, the excellent quality of the
production ’ did credit to John
Goss, its director.

Perhaps the most outstanding
performance, because it was the
most difficult role, was given by
Phil Gadd as Grandfather Martin.
Stuart and Peggy Kennedy, as
Glen Martin and his social-climb-
ing wife, Doris, were very well
cast and both made an excellent
impression. Isabella Larkin, as
Donna, the Martins’ daughter, and
Art Bowker, as John, their son,
were quite convincing, and Eliza-
beth Scott, playing the part of
Glen Martin’s general office work-
er, turned in an equally good piece
of acting. John Goss. himself
played the part of Jack Hurst,
general manager of the Century
plant and instigator of the DP.
mob action, and while he was
not altogether suited to the role
he made the most of it.

The principal weakness, in this
reviewer’s opinion, was the presen-
tation of the role of Jim Mac-
donald, played by Elmer Kujan-
paa. This role, although a brief
one, is highly important, for the
entire play builds up to it. How-
ever, as it was portrayed it was
not very convincing and a certain
awkwardness robbed the lines of
their force.

With these faults corrected, it -

is this reviewer’s opinion that the
Vancouver Theater of Action
should have no difficulty in find-
ing and winning audiences. Its
“only difficulty should be in finding
suitable halls, for But Ye Are The
People is a play no one concerned
for peace should miss seeing.
—A.C.

years ago.

ARRIVING BACK in Ameri-
ca after an absence of 15 years
or more, Dr. Emery Horns-
nagle was surprised by a
strange creature approaching
him along the road. At first
he took it to be a weird animal
or land bird of the emu or
cassowary variety. .It waddled
clumsily on four legs and had
a large plume-like tail protrud-
ing from the rear.

As it drew nearer, he per-
ceived it to be a man crawling
on his hands and knees. His
hair had been shaved off and
his head was painted blue. His
body was encircled by red
stripes. What looked like a
tail was a long stick decorated
with streamers of colored pa-
per/and bearing a placard:
I LOVE CAPITALISM. :
..As the man crawled, he mut-
tered over and over: “I am
not a Communist. I am not
a Communist. I am not a
Communist.”

“Then what are you?” asked
Dr. Hornsnagle.

The creature took one look
at Hornsnagle, then turned
around and began to crawl
away as rapidly as its hands
and knees could carry it.

Hornsnagle quickly lassoed it
-by one leg and tied it to a tree.
“Now there is no reason for
you to be frightened.” he said.
‘T am not going to hurt you.
As a scientist I would like to
know what you are.” 3

“Let me go,” begged the crea-
ture, “If I am seen talking to
you I will get in trouble.”

'“Why should you get into
trouble for talking to me?”
asked Hornsnagle. F

“Because you are a Com-

“Nonsense,” said Hornsnagle,
“What makes you think that?”

“Because,” said the creature,
“there is nothing about you to
indicate you are not. If you
were not a Communist you
would certainly do something
to indicate you were not. As
for myself, you can see at) a
glance I am no Communist.”

“Just what is a Communist?”
asked Hornsnagle.

“¥ don’t know,” replied the

could not accuse me of being
one,” &: a

“But crawling on your hands
and knees,” said Hornsnagle,

The Mugity Wumpus

THIS SPARKLING SATIRE, written by the late Mike
Quinn, well-known American labor newspaperman, is even more
pertinent today than when it was first written a number of

‘burned our libraries to make

munist,” whined the creature. -

‘Communistic.

tail piece was thought up by.

creature, -“buti you -certainly -

“and that, er — tail — isn't it
somewhat inconvenient?”

The creature broke into tears
and Dr. Hornsnagle kindly
loaned it his handkerchief.

* * *

“Tt USED TO walk erect,” it
said, “and speak my mind free-
ly. It all started when they
brought that resolution into the
union.”

“What resolution?”
Hornsnagle,

“The resolution against Com- -
munism,” said the creature.
“It was discovered that many
of our members had Commu-
nistic’ books and literature in
their homes.” >

“So what did you do?” asked
Hornsnagle,

“We.expelled them,” said the
creature, “and the rest of us

asked

absolutely sure.”

“Did that convince them?”
asked. Hornsnagle.

“No. They said our officials
were Communistic. So we ex-
pelled them too and elected
new ones who were highly
praised in the newspapers as
reasonable and patriotic.”

- “What happened then?” ask-
ed Hornsnagle.

“Then we stopped holding
meetings,” said the creature.
“There was nothing to meet
about anyhow. I was impos-
sible to make any demands or
conduct any business without
being called Communistic. La-
ter we disbanded the Union
altogether.”

“Didn’t that convince them?”
asked Hornsnagle.

The creature shook its head
sadly. “No indeed. Employers
made a rule to employ only the
most non-Communist workers
who would work for the lowest
wages. . Everybody began to
outdo each other in being non-
Some of them
began to crawl and pretty soon
no one could get a job at all
if he didn’t crawl. Then one
thing followed another. The

William Green.”

“Why don’t you stand u
tell them to go to hell?”
Dr. Hornsnagle.

“hat would be impossible,”
said the creature.

“And why so?” asked Horns-
nagle. t

“Because,” said the creature,
“that would be Communistic.”

MIKE QUINN

and
kked

PAPERS ACCLAIMED

x

High standard set by
Vancouver Book Fair

VANCOUVER’S third annual Book Fair, held in Pender
Auditorium last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, proved an
exciting cultural event to those who attended—but attend-
ance was far smaller than the imporance of the affair war-

ranted.

Presentation of a paper, “Con- —

trasts in Culture”, dealing with
the development of Soviet litera-
ture from 1917 to the present and
the decline of western writing in
the past decade, aroused consi-
derable discussion on Friday night.
The paper was presented by local
newspaper man Bert Whyte.
Saturday afternoon was “child-
ren’s day” and parents heard a
review of children’s books given
by Betty Griffin, while the young-
sters found movies and the antics
of a real, live clown highly enter-
taining. “When I grow up I’m
going to be a clown,” affirmed one
five-year-old.

/

Those who did not attend Sun-
day afternoon session to hear Tom
McEwen, editor of the Pacific Tri-
bune give his paper, “The Classics
and the People’s Movement”, mis-
sed what was generally acclaimed
as the best paper yet presented |
at any book fair.

Three book reviews, followed:
Ilya Ehrenburg’s The Storm, by
Minerva Miller; James Aldridge’s
The Diplomat, by Bert Marcuse;
and Albert Kahn’s High Treason,
by Charles Caron. :

Final event of the fair was pre-
sentation at Clinton Hall of Hal
Griffin’s new peace play, But Ye
Are The People, reviewed else-
where on this page.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 27, 1850 — PAGE 10 —

¥