Product Description

The work of Appia, Artaud, Brecht, E. Gordon Craig, Pirandello, Shaw, Stanislavsky, Richard Wagner, Yeats and Zola is the subject of the first part of this anthology. Their ideas about their art and about the future possibilities of drama are revealed through either their own words or those of their best expositors. The second part contains excerpts from the writings of such commentators as George Lukacs, Romain Rolland and Alexis de Tocqueville, which bring together the threads of part one to give an overview of the development of theatre from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #309749 in Books
• Published on: 1992-06-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Customer Reviews

Neither a theory nor an introduction
This has a number of strong points - as would be expected of a book that was first published in 1968 and has been revised and reprinted several times since. But it is not a 'theory' in any useful sense but an anthology of readings, some more stimulating than others. Nor is it really, as its sub-title would have us believe, 'An Introduction to Modern Theatre and Drama' in any coherent way. One can argue that the subject matter does not have the coherence necessary for this; but the fact remains that it is a largely unrelated collation of contributions from, admittedly, significant writers without any obvious unity of progression. It is therefore neither a theory nor an introduction in the way that would usually be understood. It might be helpful as an addendum to a more unified presentation, but on its own it leaves the reader seeking an introduction little the wiser.