A play in four acts and five scenes by Turgenev. Translated from the Russian by S. M. Mandell. Acting Version by Rouben Mamoulian. Produced under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian. Setting and Costumes by M. S. Dobuzinsky. Executed by Raymond Sovey. Being presented now at the Tremont Theatre by the Theatre Guild as the third in its series of Boston productions with the following cast: Herr Shaaf  Charles Kraus Anna Semenova (Islaev's mother)  Minna Phillips Natalie Petrovna (Islaev's wife)  Alla Nazimova Mikhail Aleksandrovitch Rakitin  Earle Larrimore Lizaveta Bogdanovna (a companion)  Virginia Gregori Kolia (Islaev's son)  Norman Williams Aleksei Nikolaevich  Bieliaev (Kolia's tutor)  James Todd Matviei (A servant)  Walter Coy Ignati Ilich Spigelski (A doctor)  Cecil Yapp Viera Aleksandrovna (Islaev's ward)  Franesca Bruning Arkadi Sergicich Islaev (A landowner)  Edward Arnold Katla (a maidservant)  Glesca Marshall Afanasi Ivanyo Bolshintsov  Henry Travers

The Theatre Guild's latest production in New York was a melodrama, but if there are any who fear lest the Guild has deserted subtle, leisurely theatre, may they attend "A Month in the Country", which opened at the Tremont Monday. Turgenev's play, which has come to Boston from New York via the Middle West, is set in the 1840's, on a Russian estate. Virtually no action occurs, and when the play is over, the principal characters are very little changed from what they were at the rise of the curtain.

Movement of emotions, play of ideas, and a succession of delicately worked out situations, held the interest of an audience which must have been far more familiar with the more common and more obvious elements of rough, slapstick comedy, blood-and-thunder melodrama, and mawkishly sentimental love tales. "A Month in the Country" is an evening of quiet. One cannot laugh often, but one is forced to smile frequently. One does not sit on the edge of his chair, but, on the other hand, neither does one drowse.

The play at the Tremont tells of the minor and restrained happenings at the country home of a bustling efficient Russian country gentleman. His wife, Natalie Petrovna, is bored with him and with Rakitin, who is a friend of the husband and a too earnest, too reasonable lover of the wife. A handsome, bashful tutor comes to the household to take charge of the education of young Kolia. The wife falls in love with Aleksei Nikolaevich (the tutor). Her ward, 17-year-old Viera, also falls in love with the tutor, who imagines himself in love with Natalie Petrovna.

The characters go through worries, advances, retreats, for four acts, and the play ends finally when the tutor goes back to Moscow. The characters shrug their shoulders, and murmur "what's the use?" with the same feeling of futility that is worrying Stalin today when he finds his railroad workers feeling futile about switches and train signals.

The play is excellently staged in most respects. The scenery is superb, and small fault can be found with most of the interpretations of the cast. One wonders, however, whether Turgenev might not be a little shocked to see the part of the country doctor (played by Cecil Yapp, who was "Rageneau" in Hampden's "Cyrano") so obviously burlesqued. We doubt very much whether the author intended to see it clowned. The principal parts are admirably played by Mme. Nazimova, Earl Larrimore, and James Todd.