SOVIET THEATRE: ITS DISTORTION OF AMERICA'S IMAGE. 1924-1973.

By John Nelson Washburn '45. Washington: TheStanding Committee on Education AboutCommunism and Its Contrast with LibertyUnder Law. Copyright by American BarAssociation. 1973. 63 pp. 75 cents.

David Rabe's play, Sticks and Bones, is sufficiently provocative, it would seem, for any taste. The Moscow Contemporary Theater has, however, changed the title to As Brother toBrother and accordingly altered its impact and emphasis, which induced the dramatist to protest vociferously. Other authors may no longer be able to remonstrate. Their cause is championed along with that of the entire country by Washburn in Soviet Theater: Its Distortionof America's Image, 1921-1973, a timely study of America as reflected on the boards of the Soviet theater. Surprisingly, American career diplomats and scholars have consistently ignored these productions and left the American public unaware of their existence.

The book opens with a historical survey of the ideological scene which determines the selection of plays. Comments are adequately documented, mainly from Soviet sources. The style is simple, straightforward, almost journalistic. Three chapters and an appendix with an annotated plot summary of the most outrageous plays comprise the book. The task which Washburn set himself was to expound the existing situation in a convincing manner to a hitherto ignorant or indifferent American public.

Even in Imperial Russia, the theater was jealously guarded against the least subversive and controversial ideas by a stringent censorship. The production of published plays was frequently prohibited. As Washburn convincingly points out, the role of the theater in Russian ideological and cultural life currently remains prominent and thus engenders the "need" for creating a corresponding image of the Soviet Union's chief ideological competitor, the United States. Relevant quotations from the speeches and writings of Soviet policy makers uncover the directing forces behind the policies. Data from authoritative Soviet sources buttress an overall view of the scope, power, and magnitude of the theater in the Soviet Unton. Most revealing is an analytical summary of trends in anti-American productions.

The plays fall into two distinctive groups original Soviet plays dealing with America and American plays singled out largely for their biased portrayal of corrupt capitalists and exploited workers in the United States Soviet plays invariably purvey a stronger distortion of America's image. American are frequently "adapted" in the process of translation to cater to indigenous tastes. With intelligent and indignant irony Washburn deplores this practice.

Miss Ketchian is an Instructor of RussianDartmouth College.