Contemporary British Theatre ed. by Theodore Shank (review)

532 Book Reviews Karen Finley or groups like Split Britches when they occur in passing as examples in more general discussions of representation. The overall impact of the volume, assuming one reads most or all of the essays and doesn'1 just approach it for critical material on a specific performer or topic, is that the reader is forced to rethink certain categories of representation that might appear as given. The essays encourage us to question our assumption of a public - versus - private sphere or the nature of mimesis; to explore the juncture of visibility and gender in a political context; to debate the pros and cons of lesbian visibility; and to experiment with the consequences of altering the assumed sexuality of the audience. The essays contained in this volume are both informative and provocative. Reading them as a group and pursuing some of the questions the authors raise has changed both the way I will approach performance in general and the way in which I will teach more traditional drama courses. SUSAN L. COCALIS, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETIS, AMHERST 'IHEOOORE SHANK, ed. Contemporary British Theatre. BaSingstoke & London: Mac~ millan Press 1994. Pp. xi, 243, illustrated. £40.00. "Theatre" is a genuine keyword in this title. The focus, says'the editor, is on the work of artists who are creating "unique forms of theatre" in Britain today. "Artists" is freely interpreted by the essayists to take in those who present performance as well as practitioners . They are oflen the same thing, of course, in the world of experimental theatre, as Philip Prowse spectacularly demonstrates at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre by being designer/director/co-manager in one. Several contributors are practitioners too. Theodore Shank is playwright and director ; and latinda Verma's positio~ as Artistic Director of Tara Arts enables him to write with warmth, as well as cogently, on the "cultural transformations" effected by this company (successfully, as anyone will agree, who saw their wittily exotic Tartuffe). Another writer/director, Tim EtcheLls, draws on his experience with the Sheffieldbased Forced Entertainment Theatre Co-operative, a group committed to bold mixes of the arts. Their idea of "continual flux" and of performers as "ideal schizophrenics" recurs in various forms in other essays. Theatre into dance, art-college surrealism, environmental theatre: the breaking of boundaries is a major theme. The fascination with multiplicity which distinguishes the volume means that small attention is paid to actors as individuals. They figure more often as anonymous elements in a group, being "sculpted" by a director/designer. Howard Barker owes his status among the contributors in part to the fact that a group of actors, The Wrestling School, is austerely dedicated to his work (Tony Dunn sees this as a sign of the power in Barker's dense theatre language and his courageous battle against received ideas). Named actors figure rarely, usually in company with directors. AlUla Massey explains her differences with Bond when he directed her in Summer, Fiona Shaw gets notice through Deborah Warner, a director who regularly sparks off controversy. Book Reviews 533 The interpretative urge is seen to possess designers as well as directors. Matt Wolf finds concepts at work at both ends of a spectrum which has at one extreme Bob Crowley (with his less-is-more technique) and at the other, Richard Hudson, who likes to fill up his space with expressionist features like raked floors and ceilings. London is not at the centre of the survey, but one or two aspects of its rich theatre life attract notice. Sheridan Morley glances at the elaborate technology of West End musicals, envisaging a time when sets will take over altogether, writing the music and applauding themselves. Edward Bond's troubled though fruitful relationship (as director ) with the Royal National Theatre is interestingly discussed by Ian Stuart, and the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican enters the scene in a brisk review by Jane Edwardes of the new, younger directors. The London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) gets sympathetic treatment from Clare Armitstead for its policy of both bringing to London regional groups like the Welfare State (based in Stan Laurel's home town, Ulverston) while fostering home·grown projects, often in...