Left Bank, The

Left Bank, The (1931), a play by Elmer Rice. [Little Theatre, 242 perf.] For several years John Shelby ( Horace Braham) and his wife, Claire ( Katherine Alexander), have been living in France and enjoying what John insists is “the most civilized country that there is in the world today.” He adds, “No civilized man can live decently in America.” But Claire has begun to miss the American way of life with which she grew up. Arriving at the same Left Bank hotel at which they are housed is an American couple. Waldo Lynde ( Donald MacDonald) clearly is educated but remains totally Yankee in his interests. His wife, Susie ( Merle Maddern), is more of a restless, free spirit. Before long John and Susie have gone off to tour the Midi together, so Claire elects to take her young son and return with Waldo to the States. Brooks Atkinson considered the play “the shrewdest contribution to the literature of the American émigré in Paris” and suggested it represented “the modern American theatre at its best.” Perhaps because expatriates no longer loom large in our artistic culture, the play has become one of Rice's most neglected.