Under the Federal Theatre staging of Gerald Cornell, Frederic Hughes' "Life's a Villain" gets its first run anywhere at the Repertory Theatre this week. This play is one of these divided things which never quite decides what it is to be, social commentary or romantic comedy. The major theme of rich boy meets poor girl--or poor rich boy meets rich poor girl--has class overtones occasionally, but only every so often. Usually it is just the amusing and quite classless angle which is stressed, though sometimes the play seems to consider itself as a social one.

Any meaning which the play may carry is to be found in the line spoken by Ann Holt, bored daughter of the nouveauriche T. Roger Holt: "Damn a social system which produces rich fathers, smug mothers, droopy sons, and finished daughters." This of course is pretty sweeping; the Country Club set should feel thoroughly chagrined. But then the affair wanders back into comedy pure and romantic in fact these often charming and often rather bewildering oscillations between comedy and comment set the tone of "Life's a Villain." In the long run it's the plot that counts. The author in making the play probably began with the simple incident of a poor girl falling off a dock at the lakeside home of a wealthy banker, and let himself be carried from there. In the course of his journey, he managed to produce an entertaining if uneven story which involves a number of characters who are sometimes just banal types, and some times rather real people.

The part of Madge Graham (the rich little poor girl) saved from the possibility of bathos and given a certain wistful distinction by Patricia MacMakin, who shows up best in the scene immediately after her rescue, when, naive and self-contained, she discourses on the family failing for falling off things--her father fell off the roof only last week. This same parent (who, it seems, fell on something--something which broke his fall) was given the full distinction which the role offered by Sardis Lawrence, who brought out all the irony, all the spirit, and all the easy-going-live-and-let-live character of Madge's aged and indigent composer-father: the top performance of the evening. Another competent oldster was Frank Thomas as T. Rogers Holt--up from below, the "survival of the unfittest," as father Graham puts it.

Vivian Taylor, who is fresh from Vassar or somewhere and uses her knowledge as something to throw bitterness at, is given a convincing portrayal as a young neurotic by Evelyn Dorn, once you've tumbled to the fact she's meant to be neurotic, and not just sophisticated. Ann Holt as the wealthy daughter, who might have been fresh from Vassar but has really just been disgorged by a finishing school, is well handled by Louise Kirtland, a beauty with a figure. The male juveniles are not so good.

The total effect of "Life's a Villain" is somewhat bewildering. The title, the first sight of the sophisticated crowd which serves as a background for the main story, the first blares of commonness from nouvelles-riches Mrs. Holt and Mrs. Turner; all lead one to expect social commentary rather than sentiment, for surely these people are not here just to be amusing. But then you do get the sentiment. And it's often quite nice. One only wishes that he did not get that disturbing feeling of something not quite said.