Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #683790 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
A vivid polemic about the dangers theatre faces in the digital age In a personal journey that takes different narrative guises - reportage, memoir, conversations and critical analysis - Michael Kustow teases out answers to a fundamental question: Why is theatre such an enduring part of our being no matter how hard it is pressed? Starting from his own personal perspective and with war in Kosovo as a backdrop, Kustow begins with a sobering and often funny account of his Sisyphean efforts to produce Tantalus, a fifteen-hour theatre epic about the Trojan War by John Barton. Then turning his gaze to crucial theatre events of the past fifty years, Kustow explores many different paths: the rise of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its renewal of classical language; the creation of the National Theatre; the vanguard work of such pioneers as Jerzy Grotowski, Pina Bausch and Pip Simmons; television's on-off relationship with theatre; and the cutting-edge work of dramatists like Mark Ravenhill and companies like Theatre de Complicite.Kustow's quest to uncover the roots of theatre leads him into encounters with important post-war and contemporary theatre makers such as Peter Brook, John Barton, Peter Hall, Tony Harrison, Ariane Mnouchkine, Peter Sellars, Robert Lepage, Pieter-Dirk Uys and Simon McBurney.

In a new Millennium, theatre@risk uncovers the qualities and values that make theatre needed, more than ever, in a world tidied by information technology and cultural globalization.

Customer Reviews

A terrific exploration of the nature of theatre
For anyone interested in theatre and frustrated by the lack of attention it receives from serious thinkers, then this is the book to read. Kustow is a risky fellow and takes you on a journey into the world of a producer and into the mind of a man who is so passionate about and hooked by an art form. Wonderfully written. Great quotes and interviews. Cerebral and popular. The book I have been waiting for someone to write. Sadly, this is very hard to find in bookshops. Shame on the publishers.

Can theatre survive in the digital age?
Michael Kustow's career in the theatre and as a producer create an unusual sort of autobiography. His premise about theatre in the digital age goes by the way in favour of a fascinating, personal exploration of why theatre matters. Very good on the avant-garde and on producing an epic show which reads like fiction. Why are there not more 'think' books like this one?