From Stanislavski to Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage by Samuel L. Leiter (review)

Book Reviews 279 SAMUEL L. LEITER. From Stallislavski to Barrault: Represemative Directors of the European Stage. New York: Greenwood Press 1991. Pp. xvi, 241. $45.00. This is a companion piece to Leiter's From Belasco to Brook: Representative Direc· tors of the English Speaking Stage (Greenwood, 1986), and shares the virtues and failings of the earlier volume. Here Leiter surveys in chronological order the lives, careers, and working methods of six leading theater artists: the Russians Konstantin Stanislavski and Vsevolod Meyerhold; the Frenchmen Jacques Copeau and lean-Louis Barrault; and the Germans Max Reinhardt and, of course, Bertolt Brecht. In each chapter there is a brief biographical sketch, a description of the unique qualities of the director's philosophy and work, descriptions of typical moments in productions, and discussion of rehearsal techniques. The chapters offer sketchy introductions to the work of these important figures. Leiter's book might be useful to undergraduates looking for thumbnail sketches of the figures Leiter discusses, but his approach is frustrating and deceptive. To understand even on a basic level the importance of crucial transitional figures like Stanislavski , onc must understand something of the theatrical conditions he so radically changed. It is also useful to know that he was preceded by successful experiments in naturalistic production spearheaded by Antoine's Theatre Libre and the Frei Biihne in Berlin. Did Stanislavski know of Antoine's reinforcement of the "fourth wall" by placing chairs and actors with their backs to the audience, innovations Leiter credits to Stanislavski? Can one discuss twentieth-century German theater without discussing the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen? And isn't Piscator more important to Brecht and the future of German drama than Reinhardt? Ending the book with Barrault, whose heyday was in the 1940S, suggests that innovations in European directing ended in 1950. What about Grotowski or the exciting work being done by contemporary Gennan directors? One cannot help but be frustrated by the lack of a critical intelligence at work here. A novice can be misled, and an expert aggravated, by an approach that blurs the work of these men into a cultural haze and a political vacuum. Since chapters arc arranged in chronological order, the book veers from Russia to Gennany to France and back to Germany without any mention of the very different theater cultures of the countries which informed the director's work. Moreover, the styles of these directors have important links to the various national cultural expressions they knew and responded to or reacted against. Not only were these artists working in particular and often problematic political climates, their work reflected their relation to the pOlitical regimes they worked within or fled from. After all, theater is political even when it is claiming to be apolitical. A book Like this cries out for illustrations. Often in describing blocking, composition , and other visual aspects of a director's work, a picture is worth a thousand words; however, Greenwood Press's characteristically spartan production values allow for no such amenities. The extensive bibliography is a useful starting point for further student research. 280 Book Reviews From Stonislavski fa Barrault: Represenrative Directors of the European Stage doesn't replace or supplement the better histories of modern directing: Bradby and Williams's Director' s Theatre (New York: St. Martin's, 1988), or Edward Braun's The Director alld the Stage: From Naturalism to Grotowski (London: Methuen, 1982). ' JOHN M. CLUM. DUKE UNIVERSITY ...