Theatre Dictionary

BOOK REVIEWS explore the dynamic tensions between pubUc and private dreams, Conrad 's characterizations of his adventurers and the discourse's "types," to reach the conclusion that "the dialogic possibUities permitted by the discrepancies of multiple viewpoints begin to dislodge the authority of the white man's telling, the only version heretofore available through this discourse." In generously fuU discussions, White applies these conclusions to Almayer's Folly, An Outcast of the IsL·nds, "An Outpost of Progress," and Heart of Darkness. White concludes that "Conrad's early fiction ensured the shift toward a different kind of colonial fiction, a discourse that challenged adventure fiction's construction of the imperial subject." There are some obvious limitations with White's book, but most take the form of wishes that more had been done with this or that point. I wish, for instance, that she had extended her discussion to include Lord Jim and perhaps even The Rescue and Romance. Her argument estabUshes some troublingly artificial boundaries between adventure fiction and the condition-of-England "domestic" fiction and between adventure fiction in actual foreign colonies and adventure fiction in truly fictional locales, the fiction of Anthony Hope Hopkins, for instance, or the early scientific romances of H. G. WeUs. White's argument does little to explain a number of Conrad's technical features such as fragmented chronology and dark thematic implications of these early works; nor does it relate Conrad to the larger topic of the century's rejection of "romance" and "adventure." There is a general lack of identifying and explaining the machinery which made Conrad's fiction uniquely his own. Finally, the book seems somewhat iU-served by ite closing chapter which ineffectively glimpses Conrad through the eyes of several Third World authors whose works have undercut Conrad's own colonial discourse , comments calling for a much fuUer discussion. David Leon Higon ______________ Texas Tech University Theatre Dictionary John W. Frick and Stephen M. VaIUUo, eds. Theatrical Directors: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994. xi + 567 pp. $85.00 THIS DICTIONARY contains biographical sketches of over 300 stage directors, living and dead, and is directed more toward students and general readers rather than specialist theatre historians. It emphasizes those people who, in the editors' opinion, have achieved intema429 ELT 38:3 1995 tional reputations, particularly those who have influenced the American theatre. This emphasis accounts for and excuses some of the limitations noted below. Of the total number of directors, thirty-four worked largely in the British theatre, and ofthat number only five were really active during the period of interest to .ELTreaders. They are Harley Granvüle Barker, Henry Irving, Barry Jackson, Nigel Playfair and Wüliam Poel—rather slim pickings, although readers with wider interests wiU find many more figures in this work. For each director there is a biographical sketch covering the essentials of his career, a list of additional significant productions he directed, and a selected bibliography to facilitate further research. The sketches are not of uniform length and appear to bear no relationship to the relative importance of their subjects. Thus, the sketch for Playfair is nearly twice the length of that for Poel, arguably the more influential figure. The selection criteria have apparently ruled out many British figures—Gordon Craig, Pinero, Shaw, and George Alexander come readüy to mind—who were active and significant during 1880-1920, and one wonders if some of the young contemporary figures included wül sustain their current "eminence." The value of the dictionary is increased by two appendices, one listing the directors chronologically, and a second listing them by the country in which their primary work was done. AdditionaUy there is a name index and a play, film and television title index. I did detect one or two typographical errors in the entries I checked, although the overall level of accuracy appears satisfactory. J. P. Wearing University of Arizona 430 ...