At a time when theatre managers are soothing the world's troubled brow either with raucous comedies or lavish musicals, "Boyd's Shop" blows into the Copley Theatre like a clean wind. It is a simple play about simple people with all the home-grown philosophy that is bound to blossom in Ulster. But St. John Ervine has put no haloes around his country folk; no sickening sentimentality. Instead, in the clash of old and new in rural Ireland Ervine has found the same problems which thrive in the largest city. And far from being "small townish," his characters are all the more interesting for being so much a part of the world.

Ervine wrote his play three years ago and has been waiting ever since to find the moment for Whitford Kane to take the lead. The wait has been worth while. As Donaghreagh's leading grocer, philosopher, and friend, Mr. Kane is little short of ideal. Then there is Hiram Sherman, portly and bouncing, who raises his pleasant voice all through the evening as the town's new minister. It would almost seem that Ervine wrote the part for him also. The rest of the cast, Helen Trenholme as Agnes Boyd, William Post, Jr. as John Haslett, Eda Heinemann and Grace Mills, all fit their parts to the old T.

Probably the greatest weakness of "Boyd's Shop" is its lack of excitement and pace. It is a dreamy play, built on the serenity of Ulster life, particularly the life of three years back when the bottom had not fallen out of Europe. And Ervine has to make up for this deficiency by characterizations which are skilfully executed, and problems which have far more universality than the limits of Donaghreagh.

His greatest slip in interest is the plot, which is well unravelled from the first scene. But the charm of the play is the deftness of his unravelling. It is a conflict of mellow experience against the force of change which comes crying to the small village in the person of the Reverend Ernest Dunwoody (Hiram Sherman) and the new grocer (William Post, Jr.), bent on taking the trade from Boyd's shop.

The most refreshing part of "Boyd's Shop" is the air of clean good cheer about it all. The comedy is graceful, not uproarious. The informality of the production was typified by Hiram Sherman, who entertained the audience between acts to prevent impatience over the scene changes, As No. 1 on th list of six Copley productions, "Boyd's Shop" may well be the best. But even though it proves a financial success, it will only stay for two weeks, to make way for Bert Lytell and Mady Christians in "Return Engagement." Boston has at last become a producing center. From last night's start, Horace Schmidlapp and Joseph M. Gaites may soon be able to thumb noses at Broadway.