Theory

But was this really necessary? True, the two worlds of ordinary, banal life and the realm of faith may require different media of expression. But it is quite sufficient to recall the sublime solution of this difficult problem in Eliot's "Family Reunion" to see how far short the present play fails. One wonders how a playwright could make Obadiah speak—in colloquial English, mind you!—of a "compromise" between God's word and what appears to be a completely secular and purely financial proposal of an irrigation scheme, while what is actually at stake is of course the drought brought about by the wrath of God. We would even go further and ask whether the force of Faith, the real glory of redemption after conversion, is anywhere in the play well brought out. We find that there the play follows too closely on the Biblical lines, whereas elsewhere it takes liberties of interpretation which serve its purpose less well. To believe in God only after Elijah has restored the child's life, provided Ruth with plenty amidst want, and given rain to the dying land, may be the story as told—but it is also infinitely more, and it would have been the task of the play—so we believe—to bring out the real struggle for faith, more than the outward symptoms alone. One cannot help feeling that Ahab has not experienced any conversion at all; his cynical remarks that Elijah has "won the first round" is just another example of what looks like Mr. Nicholson's bad taste, which he can link to moments of superb understanding. Why Elijah should give the Squire his inspired fiat for the completion of an irrigation scheme, without the laser's conversion, remains an open question. What we were told at the outset was that the Squire and his followers were bent on making money rather than listening to the voice of God. Somehow we feel that they have not really, fundamentally changed at all.

What has left us so dissatisfied is presumably that Mr. Nicholson did not succeed in either re-creating a Biblical theme with all the force of a medieval mystery [unclear: play] (like Everyman), or in presenting the eternal problem of faith in a modern and yet deeply dramatic form (like [unclear: Elliot).] We may grant that the play was interesting; but that it is forceful or convincing or even beautiful is a claim to which we cannot subscribe.