NORTHWESTERN YEARBOOK:  1952-1953: External triangle in a lighter mood brings together trio of University Theatre actors playing in Gertrude Stein's "Yes is for a Very Young Man."  UT directors and actors beamed when Chicago Tribune Theater Critic Claudia Cassidy praised production.  Miss Cassidy, known throughout Chicago for her biting and uncomplimentary remarks, called "Yes" one of the best plays in the Chicago area at the time.

MARCH 5th, 1952, CHICAGO TRIBUNE.- Gertrude Stein put her faith in youth when she wrote "Yes Is for a Very Young Man," as you can see for yourself if between now and Saturday Night you make the trip to the Evanston campus where the Northwestern University Theater introduced it last night under the direction of Edward Crowly. I would have found it worth the journey even without such added inducements as fresh snow on one side of the road and wild waves making ice sculpture on the other.

This is Miss Stein's story of what happened in a village just outside Paris during the German occupation. Having lived in and been a part of France so long,, she saw in that bitter period a strong likeness to stories told and read of the Civil war when families were split among themselves, yet in the long run patched up their quarrels, tried to forget mutual denunciations, and went on with the business of living as best they could, sometimes in the process presenting a suddenly closed front to the bewildered outsider who had believed the differences irreconcilable.

Miss Stein divides here action into five scenes, from June, 1940, to August, 1944, calling them "the Armistice," "The Departure," The Liberation," She places an American woman who may have been her younger self on the French scene, and she indicates that in France, as elsewhere, there are pragmatists, realists, conformists, enthusiasts, and idealists. 

There is Henri, who with the American is working in the resistance, and there is Denise, his wife, who sees truth in terms of practical consequence. There is Ferdinand, so young that when it is all over he has no ties to hold him back from affirmation of the glimpsed dream. Henri has won his point, which is revenge. The American is again an outsider. But Ferdinand will try. Yes is for a very young man.

Sticklers for the well made play will have no truck with this one. Characters are marched on and off stage as necessity dictates. IN a particular vivid scene at a railway station, two sharply arresting figures, a mysterious, perhaps menacing German soldier, and his shadowy glimpse of a man his compatriot declares to be American by the way he wears his hat, stir lasting interest and never appear again.

But the story is a good story, salted with witty observation and human understanding. You care about what happens which is half the babble. I found the Stein style on of reiteration rather than repetition, which can create a mood of urgent insistence, even a feeling of overhearing thought along with the word. Mr. Crowley's direction handed it all with a simplicity that knew its direction and I particularly liked Richard Swift as Ferdinand, Judith Mason as Denise, and John Siebert as Henri.

FEBRUARY 28, 1952, CHICAGO TRIBUNE - Northwestern University Theater will present "Yes Is for a Very Young Man," by Gertrude Stein at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the school of speech building on the Evanston campus. The cast, directed by Edward Crowley, includes Fred Weitsuschat, John Siebert, Judith Mason, Richard Swift, Patricia Blum, Annell McGee, Vivian Neubert, and Murray Miron. Stage manager is Paul Breitsprecher. Kenneth Dorst is assistant director. The play, the last written by Miss Stein before her death, is the story of a French family during the German occupation in World War II

MARCH 7, 1952, DAILY NORTHWESTERN – Gertrude Stein, the famous ditto dramatist, received and exciting reception the evening last week we slipped into a seat at the University Theater.  The play was “Yes Is for a Very Young Man” in five scenes and a dozen words repeated over and over.  As we entered the playhouse, Director Ed Crowley’s assistants were unveiling a bronze plaque with the inscription, “Claudia Cassidy was here and liked this show.”  So did we.  Ed Crowley and his staff and cast superbly performed the tricky chore of projecting over the footlights the play’s considerable emotional charge, along with its subtle muted undertone of urgency and suspense.

There were some in the audience, however, who made visible protest to Gertie’s eccentric playwriting.  At the end of the first scene, seven arose from their seats and paraded haughtily out of the theater.  At the end of the second scene, five more files out.  These included a veteran speech professor.  When the head usher, mistaking his intentions reminded the dissident this was not the intermission, he replied, “I don’t need an intermission to know when to go home.”  

The scene which touched off this exodus was climaxed by a slap across the face, resounding and deserved, given by the hero to his wife.  The slap business was not quite consistent with the rest of the Steinian temp.  Every key word was repeated no less than 50 times, but when it came to action chicken-hearted Gertie permitted only one slap.

In spite of the twelve walkouts our night, the show played to S.R.O. houses and the box-office was besieged for tickets through the week.  Now the theater is thinking of doing the one thing most fitting for a writer like Stein.  That’s to give a repeat performance.  The announcements may say that additional seats may be available after the second and third scenes.

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