The world premiere of William Saroyan's latest play will be presented over the weekend by the players of the Tributary Theatre, with performances scheduled for tonight and tomorrow night only.

Judging from script readings and rehearsals, Bill has done it again--a charming, moving fantasy expressing the Saroyon belief in the essential goodness of the ordinary man. It's another human comedy just like "The Time of Your Life," Love's Old Sweet Song," and "My Heart's In the Highlands."

The approach--obviously inspired by his induction in the army-- throws the Saroyan with a thesis of Love with a capital, philosophical L in a new form, and a far more successful one than that of his recent "Go Away, Old Man," which closed after 13 performances on Broadway earlier this season. Bill's ranting at Hollywood lost effect through sheer over broadness and repetition in that play; here, he strikes at the army and war with something that can best he described as gentleness (!) but with a result comparable to a good termite job: It doesn't scream out at you, but it's inexorably effective.

The play is one of Saroyan's simplest, even though the third act centers around a live man in a casket. Saroyan is going classic: he introduces clowns in the Elizabethan manner and their lines are downright Shakespearean, especially in their tortuous humor. He also uses the device, familiar to students of early drama, of punning in the choice of names for his characters. The true Saroyan touch appears here in the simple revelation that the five characters named Hughman (five Josephs, one Mary, one Ernest, and one August) are not related. In fact, none of them even knew any of the others until the play begins . . . (give us another drag off that before you throw it away, Bill).

The production is under the direction of Elliot Duvey, whose worries in the past week have ranged from the receipt of a revised script (Saroyan, believe it or not, cut 15 pages, mostly from the first act--and it was a beautiful job of getting off the soap box) to the necessity--brought about by mumps, of all things, knocking out the original castee--of doubling in the lealing role of army-bound Ernest Hughman. Fred Graves, who appears as August, the Hughman rejected by the army, bears an incarnal resemblance to Eddie Dowling, who has often appeared in Saroyan plays. The inevitable Saroyan drunk is combined with the familiar and equally all-knowing, only partly-articulate Saroyan immigrant in the person of Casimir the Hungarian, who is splendidly portrayed by Constantine Pappas. The supporting cast has its rough spots, but Saroyan is Saroyan is Saroyan.

Life is beautiful, people are beautiful, and children are the most beautiful of all. Naturally, this play is beautiful.