"Jacobowsky and the Colonel." At the Piccadilly.
THE THEATRE
Tuts play.by Franz Werfel and S. N. Behrman is good theatre and has the Merit- of improving as it goes .along. Characteristically it is weakest where it is most ambitious, for the scenes in which an attempt is made to convey a tragic sense of -the people of France walking, walking,- walking westwards out of Paris and the East away from the invading Germans simply fail to make any emotional effect, and this is not due to imperfect production since no cleverness of pro- duction could save them as they are essentially superficial and not genuinely imagined. The strength of the play is in the character drawing of the two men, the Polish Jew, Jacobowsky, and the Polish aristocrat and soldier, the Colonel. These are well defined in excel- lent dramatic situations that give scope to fine acting by Michael Redgrave and Karel Stepanek. The play is never dull but it is senti- mental, and the part of Jacobowsky might have been more strongly and truthfully drawn ; but then its popular appeal would not have been so easy. It is a good, amusing, and at times exciting enter- tainment, and.will have a deserved success. JAMES REDFERN.
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