The Present Stage. New Directions in the Theatre Today by John Kershaw (review)

1967 BOOK REVIEWS 325 in their life. The great finale of the novel is entirely a metaphor of theater, with all his old friends appearing to Marcel as actors aged by make-up. The theater, then, is very intimately involved in the basic thematique of A La Recherche. Allusions to plays mark the lapses of passing time, the all-important theme. The actresses Berma and Rachel serve as touchstone for Marcel's views on art. In depicting his spiritual adventure-the mistakes he makes, his misconceptions, the wrong judgments and false starts he experiences before ultimately arriving at what Proust considers a proper view of art and life-the theater allusions play an essential role. All this is presented quite convincingly in Linn's book; which by thus furnishing new and valid insights into Proust's technique more than justifies its hard cover. More than compensates, too, for a thesis-like organization of chapters, which necessitates some repetition, and for a thesis-like comprehensiveness , which dictates the inclusion of completely fossilized metaphors like "jouer la comMie" and "jouer un role." One might object, also, that there are portions of the book which are only indirectly involved with the subject. But the chapter "Proust's Manipulation of Chronology," which is a case in point, is of a quality that precludes caviling. LAURENT LESAGE Pennsylvania State University THE PRESENT STAGE. NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE THEATRE TODAY, by John Kershaw, Fontana Original, London, 1966, 142 pp. Price, 3s.6d. This book prints a series of lectures originally given on ABC Television, intended as a fairly elementary introduction to drama of the last ten years. Six plays are studied in detail-three British (Look Back in Anger, Roots, and The Caretaker), two French (The Bald Prima Donna and Waiting for Codot), and one Swiss (The Fire Raisers, less well-known than the others). There are three other chapters. Mr. Kershaw begins with brief, blunt definitions of terms-naturalism and realism are easily distinguishable for him since he sees the former as a matter only of style and the latter of content. In ten pages he comments superficially on Whiting, Arden, Bolt, Delaney, Alun Owen and Genet. The "Conclusions" present the common characteristic of modern drama as the absence of any generally -accepted basic philosophy. There is a wide-ranging bibliography; omissions include the Stratford-Upon-Avon Studies' Contemporary Drama (1962) and George Wellwarth's The Theater of Protest and Paradox (1964). The discussion of Look Back in Anger extracts its various themes, such as the sex-war, the study of relationships and the political and social comments. Several pages on Jimmy Porter's language expound its success as theater, but do not bring out its sustained, imaginative, undergraduate raciness. Porter is placed, oddly, as both Everyman and Coriolanus. Mr. Kershaw dislikes Roots, which he regards as naive and inaccurate, formed too much by Wesker's Jewishness and by his "very rare" kind of socialism. Wesker, he writes, "makes the Norfolk peasants so unrelentingly grim" (p. 49), which ignores Mrs. Bryant's enjoyment of her garden flowers and jenny's ability at baking a "beautiful-looking plaited loaf of bread." In any case, Wesker's purpose is an exposure of the Bryant way of life. Though Mr. Kershaw over-states in his assertion, "if we are not prepared to take the politics the play falls apart" (p. 50), his chapter is one of the best criticisms of Wesker I have read. The account of The Caretaker is enthusiastic, presenting the theme as loneliness and self-protection, and reflecting helpfully on Pinter's use of language. He points out the effective juxtaposition in a line like "The bastards at the monastery let 326 MODERN DRAMA December me down again." The Bald Prima Donna is viewed first as "a word-game" and a "romp through suburban boredom" (P. 93) and then as "stating the problem of modem living, in which people respond automatically to an automatic society" (P. 94). Mr. Kershaw's remarks on Waiting for Godot are inconclusive, emphasizing Christian references in the play. The Frisch section is disappointing, with disjointed observations on problems of translation, theories of Aristotle and Brecht, and Littlewood's production of...