News In Brief

Scant modern Soviet fare on stage, Pravda mutters

The Soviet Communist Party daily Pravda attacked Moscow theaters Wednesday for showing only classical or plays written in the West. It said most of them put on no modern Soviet productions at all.

Actors and theatrical staff in Moscow say the drift toward classical and foreign productions results from increasingly tight restrictions on the kind of modern Soviet play they are allowed to stage.

Since Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko came to power in February, theaters have been compelled to return to the values of ''socialist realism,'' the cultural creed forged under dictator Joseph Stalin. Two of the country's most prominent artists, theater director Yuri Lyubimov and film director Andrei Tarkovsky, have decided to seek refuge in the West in protest over the new policy.