After a successful run in New York "Parnell" has been brought to the Shubert Theatre as the last of this year's series of drama offerings by the Theatre Guild in connection with the American Theatre Society. Maintaining the high level of artistic achievement attained by such previous members of the series as "Winterset," "Porgy and Bess" and "The Taming of the Shrew" it provides a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to a long and varied theatrical season.

Written by the late Elsie Schauffier, "Parnell" dramatizes the romantic affair between the famed leader of the Irish Party and the beautiful Katherine O'Shea. Irresistibly attracted at first sight the lovers are impelled to consummate their feelings in the only manner possible under the rigid British divorce laws. They take up common residence with the tacit consent of Kate's husband, the fatuous dandy, Captain William O'Shea. Aspiring to political position which he can gain only through Parnell's favor, O'Shea makes himself so universally disliked that a breach arises in the Irish Party on the eve of their triumph, at the moment when Gladstone has tentatively promised to introduce the Home Rule Bill. Sensing the division in the Irish ranks, the "old fox" manages to split the leaders from Parnell by asserting that he cannot do anything for a cause which is captained by a notorious libertine. Parnell is cast out by his devoted helpers and the Irish cause is left to flounder in the confusion stirred by the divorce suit which O'Shea has instituted.

Only the most minor liberties with historical truth are taken and these only when demanded by the exigencies of the theatre. This devotion to accuracy, however laudable, tends to produce a play which allows its narrative overmuch attention with a consequent vitiation of dramatic vitality. The core of the drama is inevitably the love story of Parnell and Kate O'Shea and this central theme might bear a more profound treatment than Mrs. Shauffier has accorded it. Nonetheless, the story has such merits of its own that mere dramatization suffices to make it an absorbing theatrical experience if not a play of permanent importance.

In the central roles Dennis King and Edith Barrett achieve performances of truly outstanding skill. Mr. King leads a romantically vital touch to his Parnell which makes the utter devotion of Mrs. O'Shea and the Irish Party thoroughly credible. Miss Barrett has a most appealing presence and performs with a sympathetic restraint which quite overbalance her slightly Philadelphia acoant.