Patterns in Ibsen's Middle Plays by Richard Hornby (review)

122 Book Reviews them to deal with sowces which have not been much used in the past. In particular, their access to the archives at the Danish Royal Theatre and to those at the Bibliotheque Nationale pennits them to flesh out the production fully. The opening chapter deals with Craig as designer-director of produced and unrealized projects concerning Ibsen plays. Proceeding to give a historical setting for the 1926 production, the authors supply a perfonnance history of the play at the Copenhagen theatre. The third chapter brings Craig to Copenhagen, the interval between Johannes Poulsen's invitation and the opening night being only three months. The following three chapters, undoubtedly the most intriguing. deal with the production itself (during the rehearsal period, Craig functioned mostly as a "critical adviser" to Poulsen, rather than as a creative director); a separate chapter is devoted to Craig's scenography, and another to the costuming. Concluding the text, a chapter is allotted to the relationship between Craig and Poulsen following the production until Poulsen's death in 1938. An appendix reproduces Craig's notes made during the penultimate dress rehearsal at the Royal Theatre; and excellent notes, an impressive bibliography and index complete this fascinating study. The Markers present in this book a most scholarly, well-written work, somewhat colored by the traditional view of Craig as an impractical man of the theatre. On the one hand, in a very subtle fashion, they seem to laud Craig as a "provocative" artist, but on the other, they seem to condemn him for being quixotic. These qualities may exist, but this is not the place to embark on an attack or a defense of Craig's stage work. Yet this attitude triggers the question: if Craig was so impractical, how is it that his work is still arousing strong reactions? And how is it that his writings are still so evocative, still creating enough demand to call for repeated reissues of his published work? Would that a study such as the Markers' were made of the early. amateur, revolutionary productions. Nevertheless, the Markers are to be commended for their book. The research is impressive , and the clarity with which it is set forth is praiseworthy. I wish that as much could be said for the contribution of the publishers, the American Society for Theatre Research and Southern Illinois University Press. The typography and layout of the book are dull and visually uninteresting, and the illustrations of drawings (the number is more than welcome) all seem to have been bathed in a nondescript gray wash. I am opting nol for full color reproduction, which would have been delightful yet most impractical these days, but for some attempt to capture the visual excitement of the designs, Craig's and his predecessors'. It is my unending hope that ASTR and SIU Press will, as they continue their "Special Issues" series in theatre scholarship, place greater emphasis on the visual elements of book design and stage production than they have with this nonetheless welcome first effort. ARNOLD ROOD, DOWLING COLLEGE RICHARD HORNBY. Patterns in Ibsen's Middle Plays. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press t981 . pp. 196. $19.50. The view that Ibsen plays combine realism and allegory is no more novel than the recognition of Kierkegaardian elements in Ibsen. The central contention in this book, however, is original. Richard HombY,seeks to demonstrate not just that A Doll House, Book Reviews 123 Ghosts, and An Ellemy of the People are both realistic and Kierkegaardian (in highly specific respects), but that Ibsen developed a dramatic form for these "middle plays" in which realistic presentation and Kierkegaardian allegory balance each other in ways which are interestingly countervailing but fully artistic. One of the most interesting realizations arising from this approach is that "sudden transformations" of character such as the change of heart that Nora Helmer experiences at the end of A Doll HOElse may be seen not as mere coups de theatre accomplished through the tiresome mechanism of the well-made play. but as part of a distinctive kind of dramatic form. Hornby's method exemplifies structuralism, and his first chapter is devoted to a brief but clear explanation of the...