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Book Reviews also the archives of the Academy of Arts. It would be of more than just historical value to compare systematically the productions of the learning plays, the Berliner Ensemble, and Brecht's classes at the Academy. Another area where we would suggest going beyond Jameson is the analysis of the work of theatre practitioners who are influenced by Brecht but who are not "Brechtians" in the sense outlined by Jameson in Brecht and Method. One of the most prominent examples would be Robert Lepage, who clearly acknowledges his debt to Brecht. In an interview (June 1997) he stressed Brecht's relevance for today by referring to Brecht's awareness of the relationship between a cultural and a technological revolution. "The website, for instance, changes our culture," Lepage stated, "and people behave as if nothing is happening. Brecht's early awareness is crucial for us today." Lepage's 1998 production of Shakespeare's The Tempest adopted many structural elements of Brecht's theatre, but his interpretation of the play can be considered ideologically neutral, demonstrating that historical processes perpetually repeat themselves without change. Robert Wilson directed Brecht's OzeanJlug at the Berliner Ensemble in 1998. The directorial art of both Lepage and Wilson poses the question of whether Jameson's understanding of Brecht's method is only one possibility among many. VOLKER GRANSOW, YORK UNIVERS ITY, TORONTO (FREE UNIVERSITY BERLIN) PIA KLEB E R , UN tVER S ITY OF TOR ON TO Theater der Zeit / Brecht Yearbook 23: drive b: (1998). Communications: From the International Brecht Society. Vol. 26, no. 2. (Dec. 1997)ยท "His plays will last as long as there is drama"; "his theories of directing and acting point a way out of and beyond Europe" (96). Richard Schechner's heroic statement, from the wonderfully varied hybrid workbook/sourcebook drive b:, of the importance of Brecht for the history and the future of the theatre seems oddly out of place in a centenary year that has seen as much gripe and grudge as celebration. The idea that a German left-wing intellectual might write good plays, might have something to say to the wider world, and more: might be witty, fleet of foot, full of poetry, alive with images and ideas - for theatre, for the arts in general, for life even in a "post-Fordist" society - seems hard for some to grasp. This publication may persuade: it is good to celebrate one of the great achievements in drama and the theatre, one of the great lives in politics and literature this century. It's good to (re-)read Brecht. drive b: is an elegantly presented 176 pages packed with thought-provoking fragments: memoirs, interviews, poems, and critical essays by writers (including Nadine 290 BOOK REVIEWS Gordimer and Glinter Grass), critics (Hans Mayer, Sue-Ellen Case), directors and theatre practitioners (Robert Wilson, Augusto Baal), and many, many others , All are arranged in deliberately disharmonious sequence and scattered with excellent illustrations, Some pieces are in English, the majority in German , All the longer contributions come with a brief abstract in the "other" language , yet it has to be said: you only get the half of it if you don't have German. There are pieces on Brecht and hip-hop; the symbolism and iconography of cigar-smoking theatre directors: Brecht's potential for deconstruction; Brecht and the secret services in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and the US; "productive misreadings" in South Africa and Brazil, unproductive ones in North America; Brecht and boxing. There should be more books like this, at the same time both serious and playful, full of material for scholars and theatre people alike. The publication has been compiled and edited by Marc Silberman (ofthe University of Wisconsin - Madison) and is sponsored by the Berliner Ensemble , the German theatre journal Theater der Zeit, and the International Brecht Society, of whose yearbook drive b: is a special centenary number. The lBS Brecht Yearbook is more usually a collection of articles arising in part from the annuallBS conference; as such it is an invaluable scholarly journal . But the organization has another publication too: the biennial Communications , edited by Gudrun Tabbert-Jones (of Santa Clara University). This is a relatively informal...

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