New Play in Manhattan

Journey to Jerusalem (by Maxwell Anderson, produced by The Playwrights' Company). Upon a fragment from the Gospel of Luke, telling how Jesus when he was twelve years old went to Jerusalem with his parents for the feast of the Passover, Playwright Anderson has created a moving, if apocryphal, verse drama. Chief Andersonia innovation is a character called Ishmael, survivor of a revolution led by Judah against Rome. He meets Jesus (called Jeshua in the play) and his family in a desert near Jericho, recognizes him as the promised Messiah.

Against superb sets, spectacular lighting by Jo Mielziner, the Journey takes Jesus to the Temple where he splits dogmatic hairs with the men of the Sanhedrin, learns at last from Ishmael, in a powerful scene that culminates in the prophet's death at the hands of a Roman soldier, what his lot as a Messiah will be.

Obvious is Anderson's parallel with modern times--the unhinged Herod serving as an ancient Hitler, the youthful Jesus embodying the hopes of an enslaved people for freedom. Unwilling, though faced with death, to help Herod build a palace in Galilee upon the bones of their ancestors, Joseph and his fellow workers are thus advised by Jesus: "What we build for him the wind takes from him tomorrow, but what we build to our God in our hearts, believing in His justice, that altar will not come down."

Journey to Jerusalem has a splendid cast. Fine are the Miriam (Mary) and Joseph of Arlene Francis and Horace Braham, brilliant the Ishmael of Arnold Moss. But 15-year-old Sidney Lumet outshines them all. Under the deft direction of Elmer Rice, he has caught the full flavor of his role, but weakens under the burden of transforming himself from a gifted child to the Son of God.

Last seen with Molly Picon in Morning Star, Sidney has appeared in Saroyan's My Heart's in the Highlands, "... one third of a nation . . "in the cinema, plays on radio serials like Big Sister with fair regularity. Originally in the Yiddish theatre, he got his first English-speaking role as one of the moppets in Dead End.

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