Les Théâtres D'Asie ed. by Jean Jacquot, and: Le Lieu Théâtral dans la Société Moderne ed. by Jean Jacquot and Denis Bablet (review)

230 MODERN DltAMA September "philandered" with is lengthy and includes two famous and beautiful women whose friendships with Shaw have become legends of our time-Ellen Terry and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. But between and around these two interesting women there were affairs with Kate Salt, the waitress at the Wheatsheaf, Bertha Newcombe, Enid Stacey, Erica Cottrell, and the recently :revealed Molly Thompkins. Mr. Du Cann offers no documented sources of information-most of them are already well known. He writes like a journalist, and the story he has to tell is ~' sick one. Any lengthy inquiry into Shaw's love life can be justified only if it gives us a fresh insight into Shaw's mind or his art. Mr. Du Cann does little of that. He does give us information, some of it interesting, about some obscure women wllo for one reason or another attracted the attention of one of the great writers of our time. DAVID H. GREENE New York University LES THtMTRES D'ASIE, edited by Jean Jacquot, Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, 191, 293 pp., 28 plates. LE liEU TH:£ATRAL DANS LA. SOCI:£T:£ MODERNE, edited by Jean Jacquot and Denis Bablet, Editions du Centre National de la Recherclte Scientifique, Paris, 1963, 236 pp., 39 plates. Two extremely interesting volumes have been added to the already distinguished list of publications of the CNRS. These works, like the earlier ones~ have. grown out of symposiums at whiclt outstanding specialists have contributed papers on various aspects of a particular problem. The subjects of both books are of utmost im· portance to theater people throughout the world who are interested in renewing, reviving, and refreshing their own drama, whether it be through vital contact· with ancient sources of theater and the great traditions of the East, or through a better understanding of the physical and psycltological relations of actor to audience" and how this is affected by the theater construction itself. Les Thl!dtres d'Asie treats chiefly the great traditional theaters of the East, rather than modem, more or less westernized developments, although these are not entirely overlooked. In view of the increasing excltanges between East and West, we might do well to begin correcting our Western provincialism by a read· iag of this distinguished collection of studies. The astounding sophistication of the East, where Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, and indeed Beckett, Ionesco, and· Albee, are by no means strangers, makes a striking contrast to the foggy notions of Eastern drama in countries where even theater specialists have little or no' knowledge of Zeami, Chikantatsu, Kouan Han-k'ing, or the BhMata NatyaShastra, to say nothing of more obvious distinctions between Noh and Kabuki, or between the classical dramas of China and Japan. Thi!dtres d'Asie follows a geographical division and quite rightly devotes the most space to India and China, whiclt are the two major sources from which Eastern drama flows, and to Japan, whiclt is undoubtedly the most vital center. of drama in Asia today and the only country with a living theater whose tradition bas been unbroken for the past 600 years. Unfortunately, the Indian section which opens the collection is the least interesting, dealing as it does largely with literary texts and with the great Indian documents whiclt set down the rules' for dramatic composition and presentation.. This Indian passion for codifying, 1965 BOOK REVIEWS 231 claSsifying, and regulating is. perhaps a little too apparent in the papers themdves , which are over-ridden with Sanskrit words and pedantic details, not entirely apropos in a work of this nature. With the·section devoted to Chinese theater we enter a more lively area. Professor Tscharner, of the University of Zurich, in a brief discussion of "The Esthetics of the Traditional Chinese Theatre," makes many essential points often overlooked. For the Westerner his fruitful contrasting of the Peking Opera to various forms of Occidental theater is' particularly meaningful and reveals to us how misleading the imposition of a Western generic term can be when applied to something completely foreigu to its tradition. Professor Li Tche-houa (School of Oriental Languages, Paris) describes with clarity and vividness the historical background of the classical...