Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre (review)

I always attended the two last rehearsals before every play because my opinion was worth having just before the play was produced. My remarks were taken down in shorthand and I was always told I was wrong, but in the end my opinions were always taken and proved all right. When an actor has been rehearsing a play for weeks he becomes blind to its faults. I could say things to Alec about his work that nobody else could, and when I went in to the last rehearsals I was called the sledge-hammer. (60)

—Florence Alexander

The English-speaking stage has been relatively late to incorporate the field of dramaturgy and the role of the dramaturg into theatrical practice. Mary Luckhurst's thoroughgoing yet accessible history of the dramaturg helps to uncover reasons behind this late arrival, especially among theatres in Britain. As the quotation from Alexander attests, functions associated with the role of the dramaturg were alive and well during the explosion of theatrical activity in the nineteenth century in England, but this work was largely hidden. Alexander held no official title at the St. James Theatre in the 1890s, but she was in a unique position as the wife of theatre manager and actor Sir George Alexander. Luckhurst convincingly lays out how the cult of the jack-of-all-trades actor-manager effectively kept an entire layer of artistic staff hidden during this period, staff who were commonplace at the time in German-speaking, Eastern European, and Scandinavian theatres.

While its provocative title might suggest another focus, Luckhurst's book is an elegant and well-researched history that traces the influence of the dramaturg, organized around key figures. After her introduction, Luckhurst devotes her second chapter to Gotthold Lessing's brief but influential stint at the National Theatre of Hamburg in the mid-eighteenth century. In her third chapter, the author uncovers the hidden dramaturgy performed in nineteenth-century England, and her fourth chapter focuses on the efforts of William Archer and Harley Granville Barker. Chapter 5 considers Brecht's influence on theatre-making, and chapter 6 is on Kenneth Tynan's residence at London's National Theatre. The penultimate chapter looks at dramaturgy and literary management in England today, and the final chapter offers Luckhurst's conclusions.

One of the arguments Luckhurst makes in her history of the dramaturg is that "the first official appointments of dramaturgs or literary managers in any country, East or West, have always come about in the context of a campaign for a national theatre or desire to identify the characteristics of a distinctively homegrown dramatic literature" (40–41). Another key argument in Luckhurst's book is that the German-speaking stage was much quicker to embrace the idea that theory and practice go hand-in-hand in the creation of theatre. She cites the impact of the Enlightenment on the support in German society for a position that was dedicated to raising the level of discourse on the stage and in the audience.

These two arguments reveal many hallmarks of the functions filled by dramaturgs and literary managers. First, the strong connection that dramaturgs have had with playwrights comes into focus as a response to a desire to develop a distinct national literature. The commercial, product-oriented focus of the nineteenth-century stage in England as well as the power of star actors contributed to an anti-intellectual bias and hindered the appointment of dramaturgs. Luckhurst reminds us that Lessing's appointment in 1767 was specifically intended to mitigate the power of the principal actor and to encourage the development of German playwrights; at the time, plays from France and Italy dominated. While the intentions of the National Theatre of Hamburg were lofty, in practice, many of the reforms connected to Lessing's appointment were short-lived. His legacy, however, was not.

Luckhurst gives Lessing's countryman Brecht a leading part. She begins the chapter on his work in this way: "Brecht's theory and practice of the dramaturg...