Currents in Contemporary Drama by Ruby Cohn (review)

116 MODERN DRAMA May CURRENTS IN CONTEMPORARY DRAMAI by Ruby Cohn. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1969. 276 pp. $5.95. Some books are rewarding because they thrust one's perceptions outward beyond existing mental moorings. Such works propel one's mind toward a new broadening synthesis where fresh correlations can be discovered within a body of formerly inchoate material or thought. Other studies hold value by casually providing a format for previously unmarshalled impressions and random ideas. Although qualities of both are evident in Ruby Cohn's book, Currents in Contemporary Drama largely represents the latter eclectic variety. The term "eclectic" is pertinent in describing her welcome new study, because, since there is no single superstructure or vision advanced here to accommodate current drama, Professor Cohn has selected separate critical topics often employed in connection with today's theater. Therefore, aside from the initial chapter, the book focuses on individual loci: "Dialogue of Cruelty" (Chapter Two), "The Hero and His People" (Chapter Three), "The Mixed Mood" (Chapter Four), and "The Role and the Real" (Chapter Five). The opening chapter, "Contemporary Drama," remains exclusively a survey of drama being written in English, French, and German. After a brief introductory overview, Mrs. Cohn progresses systematically through the most important pieces by the major playwrights working in the languages announced. Although her accounts of the plays are sketchy, Mrs. Cohn perceptively isolates the key elements of each work. It will disappoint some that Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams warrant but scant consideration here, while other "comers" such as Stoppard, Kopit, Arden, and Simpson are only mentioned or omitted altogether. The other four chapters comprising the book are aptly described by their respective titles. Chapters Two and Three, though bristling with vital possibilities, do not arrive at any final word either on the drama of cruelty or the hero (and anti-hero) on stage. By far the most profound and exciting part of Professor Cohn's study lies within the final two chapters. Not merely chronicling and describing the mixture of textures and techniques in today's theater in the fourth chapter, she applies her superb critical aesthetics to evaluate the hybrid expressions of seminal contemporary playwrights. Beckett, in Mrs. Cohn's estimate, is the central dramatist of the mixed approach: "The most perfect blend of the two moods occurs, however, in the plays of Samuel Beckett, where almost any line can be viewed both tragically and comically." (p. 186) Equally as essential a topic as the mixed mood is the subject of the final chapter, the relationship of role-playing and the "real" on stage. Genet shares the spotlight here with Beckett. In concluding her extensive and incisive analysis of The Screens, Professor Cohn declares: "By showing us the theatricality of the theater, Genet has shown us the ubiquitous theatricality of what we usually call reality." (p. 246) Similarly illuminating commentaries are furnished here for Weiss, Ionesco, Pinter, and Frisch, among others, making this section of the book essential for all serious students of the stage. Mrs. Cohn's new study does not constitute a breakthrough in dramatic theory. Unlike Brustein's Theatre of Revolt, for instance, her book operates within shorter arcs of thought, with no pretensions to establish any all-encompassing construct. Its value lies instead primarily in its timely measurement of the stage right now. And that value is compounded all the more, since the work comes from one of our most astute observers of modem drama now writing. C. J. GIANAKARIS Western Michigan University ...