New Play in Manhattan

Small War on Murray Hill was the late Robert Sherwood's last play and very likely his mildest one. Telling how British General Sir William Howe (Leo Genn), not too happy about the issues of the American Revolution, dangerously dawdled while occupying New York to enjoy the charms of a patriotic Mrs. Murray (Jan Sterling), the play brings Minerva into the old conflict of Venus v. Mars. Smacking much less of the bedroom than the drawing-room, Small War perhaps smacks most of all of the library. In his use of various characters, Sherwood turned vaguely speculative as to just how, while a war is actually going on, people feel and behave about it.

Behind Small War on Murray Hill lies the faint shadow of a great war all over the world that had colored Sherwood's thinking and that gives his play, at moments, a certain pensive grace. But it has given it neither dramatic fiber nor intellectual focus. Offering well-turned prose rather than vivacious dialogue, Small War is too reflective for light comedy, yet it is not nearly stimulating enough for a comedy of ideas.

A main difficulty may lie in General Howe himself. Howe's misgivings, far from individualizing him, were in 1776 common to all but enlightened Englishmen (Charles James Fox wrote of one of Howe's own victories as "the terrible news from Long Island"); and even so, Howe's behavior might simply be due to his well-known indolence. His passive temperament has in any case communicated itself to the play. All too often Venus covers her flesh, Mars muffles his drums and Minerva swallows her words--while even oftener the Muse of Comedy turns her back.

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