New Play in Manhattan

The Patriots (by Sidney Kingsley; produced by The Playwrights' Company and Rowland Stebbins) dramatizes the historic struggle between Jefferson and Hamilton--and does it vividly enough for Jefferson's ardent democracy (TIME, Feb. 1) to shimmer in the present as well as shine from the past. Covering the ten fateful years between 1790 and 1800--when the naked, squalling infant republic had no pacifier but a weary, aging George Washington--The Patriots shows his fervent Secretary of State and his fiery Secretary of the Treasury leaping at each other's throats in their completely opposed efforts to save the country.

To Jefferson (Raymond Edward Johnson), Hamilton's encouragement of a plutocracy and hatred for "that great beast, the people," spelled the ruin of every hope and paved the way for monarchy. To Hamilton (House Jameson), Jefferson's French-Revolutionary libertarianism furnished a basis for the gravest fears and paved the way for anarchy. Neither man was as extreme as the other thought him; but they signified, truly enough, the eternal antagonism between order and progress.

Its structure often too loose, its dialogue often too literary, The Patriots does not so much achieve drama as have drama thrust upon it. Its dead patriots do not live again. But the issues they fought over still have force, and the playwright, at moments, gives them eloquence.

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