Anti-Communist Morality Play
WHITE, DAVID MANNING
Anti-Communist Morality Play The People Win Through. By U Nu. Taphnger. 184 pp. $3.75. Reviewed by David Manning White Co-editor, "Mass Culture"; research Professor of journalism, Boston...
...U Tha Dun: That's not a bad idea...
...The play opens with a prologue in which a speaker tells the audience that the Union of Burma "is standing at a crossroads...
...This was to be far more than a literary endeavor for U Nu, since, unless the ideas he espoused in his play were accepted by the Burmese people, everything he had worked for remained in peril...
...In drawing the various threads of his argument into a realistic assessment of Communism, U Nu makes it plain that he understands its nature very clearly...
...Now, with the Communists threatening to isolate even Rangoon itself, he would have to write a play exposing the nature of the Red uprising...
...research Professor of journalism, Boston U. In the summer of 1950, civil war was raging in Burma...
...Woven in with this close-up of Aung Win are several evocative scenes in which the villagers are seen in their attempt to survive the war...
...Even to us who may not be familiar with the special circumstances of Burmese political and social structure, and despite the difficulty in translating the play into colloquial English, The People Win Through has genuine force...
...the sort of millennium in which you're frightened out of your wits all the time and continually spied on and can't even be sure that your own family won't tell tales about you and have you dragged off by the secret police at any moment...
...If this wickedness (may the Lord spare us, friends)—if this wickedness takes hold of our fair country, it will reduce her to a state of abject misery and subjection to tyranny that would beggar description...
...I for one don't care for the sort of millennium where you can't even listen to the radio program you like in peace...
...His main character, Aung Win, joins the Communists as the play begins, but receives death at their hands as the play ends...
...In earlier days, there had been time for U Nu to be a "literary" man, to write satires as he had in 1934 and 1937, or a forceful drama on the domestic problems of middle - class Burmese which he called The Bull at Large...
...In the seven scenes that make up the play, U Nu vividly depicts the stark terror of civil strife...
...One way leads to the seizing of power by force...
...For example, at one point in the play, two of the villagers are discussing the pros and cons of the Communist argument: "U Tha Dun: What's all this about a millennium...
...They had come to the conclusion that a dramatic representation which depicted "the evils of attempting to wrest political power by means of force" might provide important aid to their cause...
...the sort of millennium in which, if you let yourself go at all against the bosses, you may be tried in the people's court and suddenly disappear...
...There is great force and dignity in the closing lines of the prologue, where the speaker says: "This evil is now rearing its ugly head in Burma...
...Many will remember his eloquent and moving speech at the time the Russians crushed the Hungarians last winter...
...Its first staging was not in Burma but at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1952...
...U Po Mya: That's what he says...
...Today it is studied in all Burmese middle schools...
...I don't want to see it, or hear of it, or think about it.'' There is a kinship between the lines of this play and those the Burmese Ambassador recently addressed to the United Nations...
...The other leads to the willing delegation of power by the people to their representatives elected by fair democratic methods...
...So we have staged this play, which, I hope, will help you to decide which way to choose...
...May the good Lord deliver us from a millennium like that...
...August 5 found several high officials of U Nu's government at the Premier's house to discuss not only state matters but also the writing of a play...
...But, as Edward Hunter says in his cogent biographical introduction, there remained the problem of production...
...U Po Mya: The idea is that no one will be poor and everyone will be well off...
...The play moves swiftly and makes its point...
...Hence, it was first distributed in mimeographed form, later printed in pamphlet form, and finally performed over the radio - an act a week...
...Within a month, U Nu completed his play...
...If the Communists in U Nu's play (with the exception of Aung Win) seem all to be completely lecherous and venal as well as brutal, one must remember that the conventions of the propagandistic drama almost demand this approach...
...His disillusionment with their aims and promises constitutes the dramatic framework of the play...
...It will undoubtedly continue to have an impact on Burmese awareness, for the bitter days of the civil war are still not too distant memories, nor is the threat of Communism to be taken lightly by the Burmese even today...
...They called on the Premier himself to write the drama of the life-and-death struggle that was going on in his country...
...No subterfuge here, but rather an open statement by the playwright that his lines are meant to persuade them...
...He points out that, if the play had been performed publicly in Burma or almost anywhere else in Asia, the Communists would have stopped at no violence to prevent the public from seeing it...
Vol. 40 • July 1957 • No. 29
