The Theater: New Play in Manhattan, Oct. 23, 1950

Legend of Sarah (by James Gow & Arnaud d’Usseau; produced by Kermit Bloomgarden) shows the serious-minded authors of Tomorrow the World and Deep Are the Roots having their first fling at comedy. The result is innocuous, but it is also tenuous and labored—the sort of play that could end virtually anywhere and never seems to end at all.

It tells of young Minerva Pinney (Marsha Hunt), who quarrels with the arrogant young writer (Tom Helmore) she is living with in Greenwich Village, and goes back to her New England home. Descendant of a Revolutionary War heroine who once detained General Howe for four days—whether from passion or patriotism—Minerva gets involved with a foundation that wants to honor her ancestress by “restoring” the town. She gets even more involved when the young writer turns up. The play gets most involved of all trying to keep afloat.

The trouble with Legend of Sarah is not just that the pattern is familiar but that like the pattern in wallpaper it endlessly repeats itself. Sarah starts with lovers scrapping and they continue to scrap, at ten-minute intervals, for the rest of the play. Betweenwhiles, the genteel agitation over the ancestress could be excused its lack of drama if it ever had any real gaiety as satire. The dogged humor of the play is not helped by the relentless vivacity of the production.