Absurd Imprint: Grove Press and the Canonization of the Theatrical Avant-Garde

Recent debates over avant-garde theatre position print in opposition to performance, and this opposition has tended, in turn, to map onto the tension between playwright and director. The article reorients these coordinates, focusing instead on the relationship between publisher and reader, a relationship that presents the printed text in complementary, as opposed to antagonistic, relation to live performance. As a publisher, Grove Press marketed printed plays as supplements to performance for those who could attend one and as substitutes for performance for those who couldn’t. They designed these texts so as to replicate the experience of seeing the play live, frequently with direct reference to specific performances. Their success in this endeavour was crucial to the reception and interpretation of avant-garde drama in the post-war United States.