Critical Essay | The Literary Digest

The Literary Digest

SOURCE: "An Exciting Dramatist Rises in the Theater," in The Literary Digest, 6 April 1935, p. 18.

In the following, the anonymous critic gives the dual bill of "Till the Day I Die" and "Waiting for Lefty" a favorable reception.

In less than ninety days, toiling with the unrest of his times as a central theme, a young actor in the New York theater, a young actor who was competent, but never performance-material to make the heavens sing in praise of him, has become the most exciting spokesman the world of workers yet has produced, and, as something more than mere lagnappe to that feat, he has become perhaps the most articulate dramatist available in the theater.

Clifford Odets, almost a boy, lean, nervous, aflame with indignation at what he sees around him, is the author of three plays which have made his name a new force in drama, and...
(read more)