New Play in Manhattan

Security. The ethics of Jane Mapleson (Margaret Anglin) include the familiarly dangerous tenet that evil may be conveniently forgotten when it is not publicly known. Thus when James Mapleson's pregnant paramour commits suicide, Mrs. Mapleson commits perjury in the Coroner's Court and saves her husband. But the remorseful fellow insists on babbling about his sins to his wife and begging her forgiveness. Disgusted, she explains to him her diabolical philosophy of security. Then Jim Mapleson crawls off and shoots himself. The play peters out in a subplot.

Actress Anglin's discreet linking of voice and gesture is in the grand tradition of acting, a rare delight in the modern theatre. But Playwright Esme Wynne-Tyson's gusts of passion are too like the winds of old melodrama. They proceed from an artificial churning contraption.