In "Charles and Mary," Joan Temple's play based on the life of the Lambs, the Harvard Dramatic Club made a felicitous choice for their fall production. The play, progressing evenly from beginning to end, is dramatic more by suggestion and implication than by action. Save for the first act which starts at a fountain-head of irritation, and streams along until the floodgates burst and matricide results, the force of the piece is derived from the pathetic circumstances which inextricably bound the lives of the essayist and his demented sister.

There is perhaps not recorded a more mildly poignant life pattern than that of Charles Lamb, who, himself not precisely a tower of strength, had yet to bear the burden of his own peccadillos with the tragic fact of his adored sister. While unfolding the subdued drama of this luckless pair the authoress availed herself of the abundant material for the creation of a literary atmosphere, and for the most part achieved a satisfying degree of success, leaving only to be desired a more penetrating (although not lengthier) portrayal of S. T. Coleridge, or at least an intimation of the quality of this poet's conversation.

Let it not be momentarily doubled that the players fail to grasp the opportunities afforded by the script. The characterizations were on the whole indicative of able direction, diligent work, plus a manner of treatment which would not be mis-placed on the most cosmopolitan of stages. Rosemary McHugh and Harry Hutchinson convinced in difficult pats, while John F. Joyce, as Charles Lamb, breathed vital breath into his historical model.