Mini Reviews

MINI REVIEWS Gary Blake, Michael Earley, Alvin Goldfarb, Margaret Knapp, Bonnie Marranca African Theatre Today. Martin Banham with Clive Wake. 103 pp., $8.50 (cloth); $3.50 (paperback). Disrupting the Spectacle: Five Years of Experimental and Fringe Theatre in Britain . Peter Ansorge. 87 pp., $7.50 (cloth); $2.95 (paperback). German Theatre Today. Michael Patterson. 129 pp., $8.50 (cloth); $3.50 (paperback). Playwrights' Theatre: The English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre. Terry Browne. 135 pp., $8.50 (cloth); $3.50 (paperback). All the above by Pitman PublishingiWesleyan University Press. The aim of the Theatre Today series, published in England by Pitman and distributed here by Wesleyan University Press, is to "bring together the best of current thinking, both academic and critical, on significant aspects of modern theatre." While these superlatives can hardly be applied to such slim volumes, there are unexpected joys to be found in these brief yet sometimes comprehensive critical overviews of contemporary theatre. The best way to think of these works is as resource books: they provide proper historical context, underline major themes and concerns, name playwrights and plays, offer dates of performances , and cogent capsule summaries. Here all four books follow a steady pattern ; where they differ is in the relative quality of the writing. Disrupting the Spectacle and German Theatre Today seem by far to be the best of the four. The writing in each is simply more impassioned and engaged, and both Ansorge and Patterson penetrate more areas than the other two volumes. The first provides a fairly comprehensive analysis of the British Fringe Theatre movement from 1968 to 1973. Such major playwrights as Howard Brenton, David Hare, Snoo Wilson, John McGrath, Trevor Griffiths, and David Edgar are discussed in some depth, as are such theatre groups as Portable Theatre, Inter-Action, Welfare State, and 7:84 company. The influence of the American experimentalists , Jim Hayes, the Open Theatre, La Mama, and Charles Marowitz are given their proper due, and there is even a chapter on lunchtime theatre. The second volume charts the German theatre from the defeat of fascism LIP to the present. The scope is grand and unusually well controlled. Patterson is concerned with the diverse means by which German playwrights came to grips with the horror of war and defeat. He divides the spectrum of theatre into different areas: theatre of history and myth, parody and the grotesque, rise of 100 Brechtian political theatre in the East and West, documentary theatre, and the current crop of new playwrights. He understands the full scope of German drama and theatre, not only in terms of playwriting, but from the point of view of subsidies and even to the qualities of acting ensembles and repertories. African Theatre Today and Playwrights' Theatre are not qulite as compelling or ambitious in scope. Africa is divided into West (Nigeria, Ghana, the Gambia, and Sierra Leone), East (Kenya and Uganda), and French-speaking parts. Large areas are left uncovered, South Africa for instance; half the book is given over to Nigeria. Banham's points are usually quite simple: African theatre is ritualistic in origin and functions as a reflection of community Major playwrights are discussed with huge sections of dialogue to enforce points; the pattern seems repetitious and drawn out. Too many apologies are offered for why this world drama has not been better received in the white West. The second book examines the formation, growth, and daily operation of the English Stage Company at London's Royal Court Theatre. This remarkable company , which first produced the likes of Osborne, Arden, Bond, and Wesker, is given a chronological and purely historical treatment, Browne tells cis right away that he is more interested in telling us about the day to day operations of the company and personal politics than about the plays themselves. And we are even given a detailed chart of debits, credits, and box office receipts. As a record of an institution, the book cannot be faulted for its detail and documentation. It is a study which sets its limits and never strays MTE Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater. Nahma Sandrow. Harper & Row, 435 pp,, $20.00 (cloth). Bright Star of Exile...