Sam Shepard's Metaphorical Stages by Lynda Hart (review)

Book Reviews 125 Absurd, naturalism, existentialism. Greek drama, and to specific writers (for example, Euripides, Maurice Maeterlinck, and Eugene O'Neill ). Critics whose work is represented here include C.W.E. Bigsby, Brian Way. Martin Esslin, James Neil Harris, and Gilbert Debusscher. Following those selections are 12 critical essays, including Ruby Cohn's "The Verbal Murders of Edward Albee," from her Dialogue ill American Drama; Anne Paolucci's "Exorcisms: Who's Afraid a/Virginia Woolf'? from her From Tension to Tonic: The Plays ofEdward Albee; and articles such as Sharon D. Spencer's "Edward Albee: The Anger Artist" (from Forum). Topics treated in these essays are Theater of the Absurd, social protest, satiric caricature, Camp. and "Sick" humor. This section also includes a new essay. written expressly for this volume. Using galleys provided by Albee himself, Matthew C. Roudane, in "A Monologue ofCruelty; Edward Albee's The Man WhaHad Three Arms" (the fITst published critical essay on this play), discusses Pirandellian influences, the theme of instant media celebrity, and Albee's connections with Artaud's Theater of Cruelty. The final section of the collection is entitled "Albee on Albee." It contains Matthew C. Roudane's interview, again conducted expressly for this volume, which has Albee discourse about his desire for the audience's "state of innocence," the elimination of the barrier between actor and audience, the influence of Artaud on his dramaturgy, and the importance ofhis social criticism. Also included in this section is Lea Carol Owen's "An Annotated Bibliography of Albee's Interviews, with an Index to Names, Concepts, and Places," compiled for this volume. Owen identifies major interviews by listing, annotating, and indexing them. Both brief, topical newspaper interviews and in-depth scholarly discussions are included. Items are alphabetized within each year, and concepts and names are indexed by entry numbers in an appendix. Kolin and Davis's critical collection on Albee successfully accomplishes its goals. First, it makes accessible a judicious selection of representative reviews and critical essays, reflecting the range of critical responses to Albee. Second, it provides not only new material (translations of foreign reviews , the first critical essay on The Man Who Had Three Arms, an interview. and an annotated bibliography of Albee interviews) but also, even more importantly, an extraordinarily effective bibliographic essay on Albee. This book makes a highly significant contribution to the study of a major American playwright in particular and American drama in general, LAURA H. WEAVER, UNIVERSITY OF EVANSVILLE LYNDA HART. Sam Shepard's Metaphorical Stages. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 1987. Pp. 157, illustrated. $29·95· Lynda Hart's Sam Shepard's Metaphorical Stages is the most balanced, sensible, and unified book to appear on the playwright to date. Tracing Shepard's career through a reading often representative plays, from Cowboys #2 through A Lie a/the Mind, Hart 126 Book Reviews analyzes Shepard's structural and thematic concerns, from the metatheatrical dimensions of the early works and the modified forms of expressionism characterizing the middle phase ofhis canon to the more realistic forms ofthe later plays. Hart also includes an afterword describing Shepard's film interests, a detailed chronology providing helpful biographical information, and an appendix listing Shepard's published works and premiere productions. [n addition to four photographs of productions and an index, Hart provides a useful bibliography of Shepard scholarship. Contemporary drama scholars will find Sam Shepard's Metaphorical Siages a welcome addition to Shepard criticism. The plays reflect, for Hart. "a recognizable organic development and demonstrate the efforts of a young playwright growing into maturity as he experiments with a variety of dramatic modes in search of a form that ably expresses an imaginative content" (p. 3). The purpose of the book, Hart explains, grows "out of a desire to offer a coherent, unified vision ofShepard's drama" (p. 2). Several important factors enable Hart to fulfill her objectives and make this study particularly valuable. First, Hart places Shepard within a philosophical and historical context of the modern dramatic tradition. Despite his postmodem aesthetic and willingness to explore the boundaries of theatricality itself, Shepard is very much a product of a modem dramatic heritage. "It is important," Hart suggests, "to recognize the bond that...