Last night's American premiers of Afinogenov's "Mashenka" afforded the Harvard Dramatic Club and the Radcliffe Idler an ample opportunity to experiment with a new play, and to handle it as they saw fit. It was an opportunity that wasn't wasted, either, for the production, unhampered by a mass of traditional forms of presentation, was staged with an originality and restraint that merit commendation for everyone connected with it.

A finogenov's play does not concern itself much with plot. Instead, it concentrates on a series of character sketches, with a visible Chekhov influence, and winds up as a decidedly unproletarian drama--with plenty of bourgeois emotions and sentimentality to contend with. Afinogenov isn't much as a Soviet propagandist; he does much better as a playwright.

The play's largest role, that of Okayemoy, the crotchety old scholar, suffers by virtue of his being too scholarly to be believable. He calls himself "a tiresome old man," and that's exactly what he is. But Mendy Weisgal, who plays the part,--beard, quaver, and all--manages to infuse a remarkable amount of life into an essentially hackneyed, Lionel Barrymore characterization. Recognizing the value of restraint, he has smoothed out many of the rough spots, and toned down much of the sentimentality invlved in the role.

Anne Putnam is just what the author ordered in the title role of Mashenka. She's sweet without being sloppy, and sparkling without the dangers of effervescing. Igor Gorsky, as her secret love, roars through the part of an enthusiastic Soviet geologist, Leonid, apparently bent on getting the Five-Year Plan through before the rains set in.

Jane Spencer, as Nina, the singing teacher with whom Leonid falls in love, and Hibbard James as the amorous Dr. Tumansky, are effective in lesser roles. And Madeline Walkers as the cook--though somewhat stereotyped--and Charles Dean as a Junior Don Juan are excellent comedy characterizations.

Phyllis Stohl's direction has tied together the ends of a more than satisfactory bandle of character studies and has welded them into a play which is well worth seeing. It'll be at Brattle Hall tonight and tomorrow.