Urban Theatre in the Low Countries, 1400-1625 (review)

Most of the essays in this anthology are fairly technical and will be of interest only to the specialist in the history of theatre or drama in Belgium and the Netherlands, and many of the authors write from a strictly philological perspective, concerned, that is, with matters of provenance of manuscripts, editorial development, and linguistic details. Even then, however, these specialist essays are pertinent to students investigating the wider dimensions of how medieval theatre turned into Renaissance forms, the playwrights and civic organizations sponsoring them being quite aware of intellectual, political and religious currents at play throughout Western and Central Europe.

Some of the essays, on the other hand, take a different approach. The lengthy introduction by Strietman and Happé, for instance, provides an excellent overview of the problem of how theatre developed in the midst of religious controversy, state-formation, and civic growth. These problems are then discussed in relation to the role of the Chambers of Rhetoric in essays by Gary K. Waite and Wim Hüsken, while a more conceptual approach is offered in Bart Ramakers' 'Dutch Allegorical Theatre'. Several micro-studies of these topics appear in contributions by Alan E. Knight, Lynette R. Muir and Meg Twycross. Among the other essays, Femke Kramer's 'Producing Late Medieval Dutch Plays Today' is different in kind by examining, with many photographs, what actual performances look like in current revivals.

In all, there are twelve essays dispersed into five sections: Precursors, Politics and Religion, Literary Tradition and Conceptual Approach, Urban Dramatic Culture, and Performance and Material Culture. The authors seem divided roughly into three-quarters Dutch and one quarter British. Though some of the writing is turgid because of its technical jargon, on the whole the collection is free of post-modernist neologisms. I recommend it for specialist libraries.