Theater East and West: Perspectives Toward a Total Theater by Leonard C. Pronko (review)

BOOK REVIEWS THEATER EAST AND WEST: PERSPECTIVES TOWARD A TOTAL THE~ A TER, by Leonard C. Pronko, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967, 230 pp., Ill. Price $7.50. The title may give one the impression that this is a comparative study of the theater of the East and of the West. However, the purpose of this book is to study how the theater of the West can become a "total theater" by adopting Oriental theatrical ideas and devices which the author characterizes as participative , total and stylized. Hence, the focus of the entire book with its six chapters is on the Oriental theaters: Balinese, Chinese, Noh and Kabuki. Professor Pronko believes that the highly stylized and symbolic actings and the peculiar stage settings of the Oriental theater can help a Western theater which has been too realistic to "work toward a theater that, dealing less with the accidents of the particular moment and appealing to the histrionic sensibility as well as to the pre-logical faculties, might be a unifying force in our life pointing to the secret sources of being and to the mysterious origins of the 'human condition'" (p. 32), and that the Oriental theatrical device may enable the Western theater to express things "bigger than life." Professor Pronko's book is probably the first book in the English language that gives a serious, systematic and detailed attention to the possibility of enriching Western theater with Oriental theatrical techniques and ideas. As Professor Pronko points out in his study, Oriental theatrical devices and ideas have already exercised noticeable influence on such great modern Western playwrights as Bertolt Brecht (e.g. his theory of epic theater), Jean Genet (in Balcony and the Blacks), Paul Claudel (The Satin Slipper), Peter Weiss (Marat~Sade), Peter Shaffer (Royal Hunt Of the Sun) and even Tennessee Williams (Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Any More), but these are only the beginning. Because of his emphasis on the importance of the Oriental theater to the Western theater, Professor Pronko gives a world significance to the Oriental theater which should no longer be considered merely exotic, strange and unintelligible , but should be studied as a source of inspiration and a model for the future of the Western theater. When the author says that "the book is intended for the intelligent lover of theater as well as for the theater specialist," he may have the Western reader in mind, but, this reviewer feels, this book will benefit the theater lover and the theater specialist in the Orient as well; for many playwrights and specialists in the Orient have long neglected and forgotten their own dramatic traditions, or, as the Chinese Communist drama reformers, are at utter loss and confusion as how to apply the traditional dramatic devices to contemporary themes. In this admirable book, however, I wish to point out one minor error. Shih I Hsiung is not the author of The Western Chamber which was a play written by a thirteenth century Yuan dramatist Wang Shih-fu (P. 51). Hsiung is its translator. Professor Pronko's book not only augments substantially our understanding of the nature, concept and theatrics of the Oriental theater, it will also, we can predict, contribute considerably to the future development of the Western dramatic literature and theater. CONSTANTINE TUNG Pomona College 109 ...