The Berliner Ensemble was founded by Bertolt Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel in 1949. The company soon gained international prominence, and its productions and philosophy influenced the work of theatre-makers around the world. David Barnett's book is the first study of the company in any language. Based on extensive archival research, it uncovers Brecht's working methods and those of the company's most important directors after his death. The book considers the boon and burden of Brecht's legacy, and provides new insights into battles waged behind the scenes for the preservation of the Brechtian tradition. The Berliner Ensemble was also the German Democratic Republic's most prestigious cultural export, attracting attention from the highest circles of government, and from the Stasi, before it privatised itself after German reunification in 1990. Barnett pieces together a complex history that sheds light on both the company's groundbreaking productions and their turbulent times.
Irony and theatre share intimate kinships, not only regarding dramatic conflict, dialectic or wittiness, but also scenic structure and the verbal or situational ironies that typically mark theatrical speech and action. Yet irony today, in aesthetic, literary and philosophical contexts especially, is often regarded with skepticism - as ungraspable, or elusive to the point of confounding. Countering this tendency, William Storm advocates a wide-angle view of this master trope, exploring the ironic in major works by playwrights including Chekhov, Pirandello and Brecht, and in notable relation to well-known representative characters in drama from Ibsen's Halvard Solness to Stoppard's Septimus Hodge and Wasserstein's Heidi Holland. To the degree that irony is existential, its presence in the theatre relates directly to the circumstances and the expressiveness of the characters on stage. This study investigates how these key figures enact, embody, represent and personify the ironic in
In this book Brian Crow and Chris Banfield provide an introduction to post-colonial theatre by concentrating on the work of major dramatists from the Third World and subordinated cultures in the first world. Crow and Banfield consider the plays of such writers as Wole Soyinka and Athol Fugard and his collaborators from Africa; Derek Walcott from the West Indies; August Wilson and Jack Davis, who write from and about the experience of Black communities in the USA and Australia respectively; and Badal Sircar and Girish Karnad from India. Although these dramatists reflect diverse cultures and histories, they share the common condition of cultural subjection or oppression, which has shaped their theatres. Each chapter contains an informative list of primary source material and further reading about the dramatists. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of theatre and cultural history.
Theatre, in a variety of forms and contexts, can make, and indeed has made, positive political and social interventions in a range of developing cultures across the world. In this book a distinguished team of theatre historians and dramatists explores how theatre has a dynamic and often difficult relationship with societies and states, arguing positively that theatrical activity can make a difference. The collection begins with a foreword by Wole Soyinka and, through the volume, specially chosen plays, projects and movements are examined, embracing a variety of theatrical forms from conventional text to on-site developmental work. The communities addressed range from the national to the local, from middle-class elites to the economically dispossessed in countries such as Brazil and Argentina, Nigeria, Eritrea and South Africa, and India and the Caribbean countries.
Histories of British theatre between 1918 and 1939 have tended to marginalize the commercial and mainstream in favour of the literary or the politically motivated. This volume brings together a collection of essays that reflect both a far more complex theatre world than this strategy has allowed for, and scholarship on mainstream and alternative theatres in the 1920s and 1930s. Combining the popular with the commercial, the book includes accounts of the craze for thriller and detective plays and musical comedy and revue, alongside analyses of historical pageantry and the development of politicized productions of Shakespeare. With assessments of the representation of gender and sexuality in the theatre, this volume not only unveils hitherto neglected theatre practices but also places them in the context of a society undergoing rapid social and cultural change. It will appeal to advanced undergraduates and postgraduates and scholars interested in twentieth-century British theatre.
'To portray the Holocaust, one has to create a work of art', says Claude Lanzmann, the director of Shoah. However, can the Holocaust be turned into theatre? Is it possible to portray on stage events that, by their monstrosity, defy human comprehension? These are the questions addressed by the playwrights and the scholars featured in this book. Their essays present and analyse plays performed in Israel, America, France, Italy, Poland and, of course, Germany. The style of presentation ranges from docudramas to avant-garde performances, from realistic impersonation of historical figures to provocative and nightmarish spectacles. The book is illustrated with original production photographs and some rare drawings and documents; it also contains an important descriptive bibliography of more than two hundred Holocaust plays.
This work gives an 'inside' view of Chinese theatre and the actor in performance. In doing so it also challenges Western theatre artists such as Brecht, Grotowski, Barba and Schechner, who have extracted from Chinese theatre elements which might enrich their own theatres. Jo Riley writes from her personal observations of, and dialogue with, Chinese actors and her first-hand experiences of the theatre world of China in general, none of which was possible before 1980. She uses not only jingju (so misrepresented as Peking opera) but also exorcism, puppet theatre and ancient animation rites at the tomb to provide models for exploring the process of creating presence on the Chinese stage. Her study is well illustrated with photographs and diagrams and is accessible to anyone interested in theatre, even those with no knowledge of Chinese or Chinese theatre.
Post-Imperial Brecht challenges prevailing views of Brecht's theatre and politics. Most political theatre critics place Brecht between West and East in the Cold War, and a few have recently explored Brecht's impact as a Northern writer on the global South. Loren Kruger is the first to argue that Brecht's impact as a political dramatist, director and theoretical writer makes full sense only when seen in a post-imperial framework that links the East/West axis between US capitalism and Soviet communism with the North/South axis of postcolonial resistance to imperialism. This framework highlights Brecht's arguments with theorists like Benjamin, Bloch, and Lukacs. It also shows surprising connections between socialist East Germany, where Brecht's 1950s projects impressed the emerging Heiner Müller, and apartheid-era South Africa, where his work appeared on the apartheid as well as anti-apartheid stage.
Histories of British theatre between 1918 and 1939 have tended to marginalize the commercial and mainstream in favour of the literary or the politically motivated. This volume brings together a collection of essays that reflect both a far more complex theatre world than this strategy has allowed for, and scholarship on mainstream and alternative theatres in the 1920s and 1930s. Combining the popular with the commercial, the book includes accounts of the craze for thriller and detective plays and musical comedy and revue, alongside analyses of historical pageantry and the development of politicized productions of Shakespeare. With assessments of the representation of gender and sexuality in the theatre, this volume not only unveils hitherto neglected theatre practices but also places them in the context of a society undergoing rapid social and cultural change. It will appeal to advanced undergraduates and postgraduates and scholars interested in twentieth-century British theatre.
This volume provides a theoretical framework for some of the most important play-writing in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. Examining representative plays by Arnold Wesker, John Arden, Trevor Griffith, Howard Barker, Howard Brenton, Edward Bond, David Hare, John McGrath and Caryl Churchill, the author analyses their respective strategies for persuading audiences of the need for a radical restructuring of society. The book begins with a discussion of the way that theatre has been used to convey a political message. Each chapter is then devoted to an exploration of the engagement of individual playwrights with left-wing political theatre, including a detailed analysis of one of their major plays. Despite political change since the 1980s, political play-writing continues to be a significant element in contemporary play-writing, but in a very changed form.
After nearly five decades as one of Ireland's most celebrated playwrights, Brian Friel has been the subject of ten books and dozens of articles. This study expands Friel criticism into a sizeable body of material and into a fresher interpretative direction. Along with considering Friel's more recent plays, the book analyzes his interviews and essays to chart the author's ideological evolution throughout a career of more than forty years. Moreover, a chapter is devoted to his often ignored articles for The Irish Press (1962–1963), a series that reveals unsuspected insights into Friel's disposition towards the Irish Republic. Refining our understanding of Friel's relationship to Republicanism is central to the argument; rather than assuming that the author embraces nationalist ideology, the book relocates the conceptual concerns of his work away from Dublin and to 'The North', this bridge between Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.
This book examines one of the most influential modern theatre companies, 7:84 (Scotland), under the directorship of John McGrath. 7:84 (Scotland) has been a vital contributor to the place and importance of alternative theatre on the modern British stage. DiCenzo explores the development of this company, the growth of popular theatre in general within the last twenty years and offers a methodology for analysing records and materials found in theatre company archives and illustrates the many issues inherent in running a theatre company, including venues, practitioners and the politics of funding. The book includes valuable primary source material and informative production photographs and company posters.
Post-Imperial Brecht challenges prevailing views of Brecht's theatre and politics. Most political theatre critics place Brecht between West and East in the Cold War, and a few have recently explored Brecht's impact as a Northern writer on the global South. Loren Kruger is the first to argue that Brecht's impact as a political dramatist, director and theoretical writer makes full sense only when seen in a post-imperial framework that links the East/West axis between US capitalism and Soviet communism with the North/South axis of postcolonial resistance to imperialism. This framework highlights Brecht's arguments with theorists like Benjamin, Bloch, and Lukacs. It also shows surprising connections between socialist East Germany, where Brecht's 1950s projects impressed the emerging Heiner Müller, and apartheid-era South Africa, where his work appeared on the apartheid as well as anti-apartheid stage.
Joan Littlewood was one of the most visionary and influential theatre directors of the twentieth century. Drawing on extensive archival research and detailed performance histories, and paying close attention to wider political and cultural forces, this innovative study presents a fresh examination of Littlewood's treatment of the politics of war, Renaissance plays, marginalised communities and popular culture in productions such as Oh What a Lovely War, A Taste of Honey and Richard II. This book offers a sustained examination of Littlewood's paratheatrical activity that centred on her ambitious plans for the Fun Palace, a multifaceted cultural centre, and her numerous playground projects for young people. Alert to critical thinking on ethics, citizenship, cultural politics, class and space, Joan Littlewood's Theatre will deepen and extend knowledge and understanding of the innovative theatrical, cultural and community-based practices generated by Littlewood throughout her career.
The Royal Court Theatre is one of the primary forums in the development of post-war drama. Under the title of the English Stage Company the theatre's house actors and dramatists commissioned and produced some of the most influential plays in modern theatre history, including the works of Brenton, Churchill, Bond and Osborne. The story of the Royal Court is also the history of the contemporary stage. In this absorbing account of the theatre's history from 1956 to 1998, Philip Roberts draws on previously unpublished archives in both public and private collections and a series of interviews with people prominent in the Court's life. The book also includes a Foreword by the former Director of the Royal Court, Max Stafford-Clark. The result is an intimate account of the working of the foremost house of modern drama and its relationships to the world of the theatre in Britain and abroad.
This book examines one of the most influential modern theatre companies, 7:84 (Scotland), under the directorship of John McGrath. 7:84 (Scotland) has been a vital contributor to the place and importance of alternative theatre on the modern British stage. DiCenzo explores the development of this company, the growth of popular theatre in general within the last twenty years and offers a methodology for analysing records and materials found in theatre company archives and illustrates the many issues inherent in running a theatre company, including venues, practitioners and the politics of funding. The book includes valuable primary source material and informative production photographs and company posters.
This volume provides a theoretical framework for some of the most important play-writing in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. Examining representative plays by Arnold Wesker, John Arden, Trevor Griffith, Howard Barker, Howard Brenton, Edward Bond, David Hare, John McGrath and Caryl Churchill, the author analyses their respective strategies for persuading audiences of the need for a radical restructuring of society. The book begins with a discussion of the way that theatre has been used to convey a political message. Each chapter is then devoted to an exploration of the engagement of individual playwrights with left-wing political theatre, including a detailed analysis of one of their major plays. Despite political change since the 1980s, political play-writing continues to be a significant element in contemporary play-writing, but in a very changed form.
Feminist Views on the English Stage, first published in 2003, is an exciting and insightful study on drama from a feminist perspective, one that challenges an idea of the 1990s as a 'post-feminist' decade and pays attention to women's playwriting marginalized by a 'renaissance' of angry young men. Working through a generational mix of writers, from Sarah Kane, the iconoclastic 'bad girl' of the stage, to the 'canonical' Caryl Churchill, Elaine Aston charts the significant political and aesthetic changes in women's playwriting at the century's end. Aston also explores writing for the 1990s in theatre by Sarah Daniels, Bryony Lavery, Phyllis Nagy, Winsome Pinnock, Rebecca Prichard, Judy Upton and Timberlake Wertenbaker.
This text was the first monograph to document and analyse the plays written by Black and Asian women in Britain. The volume explores how Black and Asian women playwrights theatricalize their experiences of migration, displacement, identity, racism and sexism in Britain. Plays by writers such as Tanika Gupta, Winsome Pinnock, Maya Chowdhry and Amrit Wilson, among others - many of whom have had their work produced at key British theatre sites - are discussed in some detail. Other playwrights' work is also briefly explored to suggest the range and scope of contemporary plays. The volume analyses concerns such as geographies of un/belonging, reverse migration (in the form of tourism), sexploitation, arranged marriages, the racialization of sexuality, and asylum seeking as they emerge in the plays, and argues that Black and Asian women playwrights have become constitutive subjects of British theatre.
