Play by Play: Theater Essays & Reviews, 1993-2002 (review)

Jonathan Kalb's excellent collection of essays illuminates the one area of theatre often relegated to mean-spirited punchlines or dismissed entirely: theatre criticism. With this compilation, Kalb—former drama critic for The Village Voice and New York Press as well as a regular contributor to American Theatre and The New York Times—has proven himself an important documentarian of American theatre production history and deserves to be regarded as an important theatre practitioner.

Kalb's first section, "Critical Mess," begins with a transcript of a lecture given to students at Barnard College and New York University in fall 2002. "The Death (and Life) of American Theatre Criticism: Advice to the Young Critic" is a fascinating and charming discussion of both the author's own journey and "words of practical advice, offered with all the recklessness of love" (14). Kalb offers valuable insights such as "Write journalism—Read beyond it" and "Ground your work in knowledge, not style." The author is passionate about the need for and development of critics rather than stylists, and encourages open and public discourse that allows give-and-take between critics and readers to avoid the too-common megalomania of many critics.

This essay is followed by "The Critic In Extremis," a rather short piece that tackles the decline of criticism while lionizing Gordon Rogoff, critic and author of Vanishing Acts: Theater Since the Sixties. Rogoff, challenges Kalb, is the type of critic whose work is overlooked primarily because of America's inclination towards anti-intellectualism and embrace of recycled culture. Including witty gems such as Rogoff's reaction to David Mamet's work: "short-winded plays keep playing into the hands of the monsters he's putting down" (26), Kalb makes a valid point about our current obsession with entertainment over analysis. Part 1 ends with the direct and insightful "The Critic as Humanist," which scrutinizes the struggle of the critic to respond to the work not only as a universal audience member but also an elite one.

Kalb's next section, "Something the Dust Said," focuses specifically on the work and legacy of Samuel Beckett. The five essays within explore everything from Beckett's work on film to the recently published Eleuthéria, the play that Beckett wanted never to be published. A critical look at Deirdre Bair's biography on Beckett, a performance review of a revival of Waiting for Godot, and a look at Bill Irwin's performance in Texts for Nothing complete the section. In all five essays, Kalb proves himself an informed and opinionated defender of Beckett's intent while providing the reader with a strong sense of the range of approach to dramatic criticism.

"American Dreams" sheds light on solo performance pieces. In his essay "Documentary Solo Performance: The Politics of the Mirrored Self," Kalb makes the case that the rise of solo pieces isn't merely a matter of economics, but, rather, the reaction to the lack of political theatre that thrived in early periods of American history. Solo artists such as Anna Deavere Smith, Marc Wolf, Danny Hoch, and Sarah Jones, claims Kalb, represent a modern version of Brecht's expounding of topical narratives and documentary style. It is a fascinating and insightful discourse; by representing the role of the critic as respondent not only to the work but also the historical context in which the work fits, Kalb proves himself a remarkably authoritative and discerning voice.

Four essays compose part 4, "German Questions." Beginning with a review of Peter Stein's twenty-one-hour production of Faust I and Faust II in July 2000 and progressing to a discussion on the Berliner Ensemble's decline as Germany's "official" theatre, Kalb's work takes a sharp turn in "You Can Go Home Again." In this personal essay on being an American Jew living in West Berlin for a few years, Kalb offers a refreshingly personal reaction in his critiques of German plays. While never crossing...