Max Reinhardt by J.L. Styan (review)

Book Reviews by cultural and political policies of the state. In this sense, Stein's career to the present reflects the paradigmatic course of many directors and theater people in the 1970's and 1980'S, and it is a credit to Patterson's study that he has carefully marked the contours so that we can begin moving toward a comprehensive knowledge of contemporary German theater. JACK ZIPES, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MILWAUKEE J.L. STYAN. Max Reinhardt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1982. Pp. xvi, 171, illustrated. $32.50 ; $10.95 (PB). Up to now, anyone interested in Max Reinhardt and restricted to works in English had to rely on the outdated books by Huntly Carter (1914) and Oliver Martin Sayle (1924), supplemented more recently by a Festschrift (1973) and the memoirs ofReinhardt's son Gottfried (1979). Now, as part ofCambridge's "Directors in Perspective" series, we are offered a new, brief portrait in English by John L. Styan, the prolific author of many books and articles on matters dramatical. As one wouldexpectfrom such an experienced writer, much ofthe lucid and pithy text etches clear images in the reader's mind. There is the highly original innovator Max Reinhardt, changing from the theater of realism to symbolist and expressionistic staging techniques; there is the easy mastery of the whole gamut of stages from the intimate Kammerspiele to the huge, neobaroque public spectacles performed in open-air settings or enormous circus arenas. We see the technical pioneer who uses lighting and revolving stages to great effect, as well as the daring supporter of new and controversial contemporaries like Wedekind and Shaw. There is the bundle ofenergy directing huge crowds with a bullhorn, but there is also the patiently nurturing director working quietly with an individual actor. The champion of Ibsen and Strindberg also revives the classics, from the Greeks via Shakespeare to Goethe and Schiller. Ifone looks for a reconciliation ofthese seeming contradictions, it can probably be found in Reinhardt's prodigious appetite for hard work, meticulous attention to detail, and pragmatic approach to any production. He is not a theoretician but a practitioner, as the primary sources of this book show very clearly. In his Regiebucher, where Reinhardt collects all his ideas and insights, he is trying to see every play anew, constantly revising and improving, never satisfied with some canonical way of doing things. He was aided in this approach by one of his major achievements, the introduction of and insistence on true repertory theater. He strove for ensemble effects and disliked the star system, since he liked to work out the entire production before casting a single part and continued to revise until opening night, always open to new ideas and suggestions. All of Reinhardt's contributions to modem theater are displayed here, by means of specific productions in locations as varied as Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Hollywood, and Salzburg; promptbooks andRegiebucher are the sources, together with reviews and critical accounts by contemporaries. Still, the reader feels some dissatisfaction, in part induced by the series format and brevity ofthe account. Reinhardt appears more a specimen in a vacuum-sealed bottle than a historical figure; one would never know from this book that World War I took place at all, with its many dislocations of sensibilities and with taste so vividly mirrored in the arts of the 1920'S. Equally Book Reviews disappointing is the lack of critical analysis of the specific productions cited, and of a conceptual and historical framework that would enable the reader to judge the significance ofReinhardt's contributions to the modern theater. As it is, one must either take the author's assertions on these issues on faith, or be an expert on modern theater oneself. Both specialist and amateur may be troubled, however, by phrases in which "impressionistic features of symbolist design" make a play "flow and work for a modem audience" (p. 53). While such passages are relatively rare, they are not atypical in their casual use of complex terms and concepts that are taken for granted in the text. For an audience of specialists, however, the book is too rudimentary, while general readers may well require some assistance in coping with period...