For those who like their drama more or less straight, who go to the theatre with a serious purpose, Sidney Howard has written, and the Theatre Guild has produced, "The Silver Cord", now on the board of the Wilbur Theatre, with Laura Hope Crews, as in New York, heading a capable cast.

The theme of the play is just a bit nasty-mother love perverted to a selfish maternal obsession, or in other words the mother-in-law problem taken seriously, and treated almost savagely.

Miss Crews' acting of the disagreeable mother role granting the truth of the author's conception of this role that of an artificial and self-centered woman is very close to perfection, and one could hardly imagine a more convincing portrait of the daughter in-law battling for her rights than that given by Elisabeth Risdon, who fully justifies the predictions made for her future when she was still in minor roles.

If you know your Friend and other complexes as you of course should you will eat this play alive Sometimes, the reviewer being more or less innocent of such matters, thought that he was being privileged to listen to dialogue which was somewhat over his rather low brow, but this perhaps is to be expected from the pen of the Pulitzer Prize winner, the author of "They Knew What They Wanted" and "Ned MeCobb's Daughter"

Pamela Sampson, as almost another daughter-in-law, and Alden Chase and Jack Livesey as the two sons, handle their less exacting parts with complete adequacy.