Changing Stages: A View of British and American Theatre in the Twentieth Century

by Richard Eyre, Nicholas Wright

Through the flash points of its glorious history, Richard Eyre and Nicholas Wright, two of today's most distinguished men of the theatre, celebrate the British and American stage as it has evolved over the course of the twentieth century. From Pygmalion 's first Eliza Doolittle (Mrs. Patrick Campbell, who enchanted playwright George Bernard Shaw in 1914) and her equally piquant successors, to Uta Hagen in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ; from Gertrude Lawrence and Noël Coward in his Private Lives (their performance as dazzling as the play itself), to Michael Frayn's Copenhagen —this stylish, astute, richly pictorial volume brings us the actors, directors, and playwrights who have shaped one hundred years of the theatre and the performances that live on in our minds
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Lotte Lenya in The Threepenny Opera , Laurence Olivier in the British production of Eugene O'Neill's viscerally American Long Day's Journey into Night , Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun , Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman , Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead . . . Here is the essential mixture of Shakespearean heritage, Irish magic, American vitality, and Russian pathos that converged on the stage in an efflorescence of dramatic innovation. Eyre and Wright's survey of this brilliant period is allusive, intelligent, and intimate, rich in anecdote and infused with a deep love and understanding of the theatre.

Genres: Theatre

400 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2000

Reviews

[Nick Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

A history or personal response to Twentieth Century British theatre written by a notable stage director and a playwright. Apparently it was the companion piece to a BBC TV series, but I have no memory of the series. And the authors assure us the book wasn’t a spin off, but that they wrote it before making the programmes. It is a fun and enthusiastic book, but it also feels a little thrown together. Its title begs two questions: what is meant by theatre and what is meant by British? The authors seem a little wobbly on both questions.

I presume theatre is generally (although, not always) an event that begins with a text written by an author, which is then staged by actors and directors and designers and other collaborators. The authors of Changing Stages acknowledge this, but a large part of the book introduces us to playwrights and their notable works. I imagine this is very useful for people wanting a broad outline of British plays (and there are many figures and plays that I feel I should find out more about), but it is a limited response to ‘theatre’. But the opening chapter is on Shakespeare and after an introduction to Shakespeare (just in case we hadn’t heard of him), there is an outline of British Shakespeare productions from Harley Granville-Barker at the beginning of the century, through Gielgud and Olivier, and into the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company – and it also contains long asides on the founding of the National Theatre and the RSC. For most of the time Changing Stages is an introduction to Twentieth Century British plays, but occasionally it will bounce into describing theatre as a broader experience, but it never seems quite sure what it is focusing on.

The idea of ‘British’ theatre is also a little confused. The second chapter is about Ireland and England and the authors contend that for about 300 years the most important ‘British’ writers were Anglo-Irish. They note the triumvirate of Wilde, Shaw and Yeats at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, but most of the Ireland and England chapter is taken up considering Yeats and the founding of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and then the works of Synge and O’Casey. The authors, however, don’t explain the impact of these authors on British theatre – it feels as though Irish theatre is a sub-section of British (or English – the authors use British and English as though they are much the same) theatre…this might annoy Irish readers. If we put this down to Imperial arrogance, even stranger are the chapters on American theatre…again, there is no attempt to explain their impact on British theatre. (I notice the sub-title of the American addition was “A view of British and American theatre in the Twentieth Century”…but an American reader might be confused why the book is so Anglocentric.) There is, however, a section on Brecht and the authors do focus on his impact on British theatre.

Changing Stages does, however, come to life with the chapter on ‘1956’. The authors note the impact of Look Back in Anger and introduce John Osborne and the Royal Court and the creative personal who worked there. It goes on to note the impact of Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop. This is a much broader consideration of theatre and I presume the authors were now writing about a theatre and time that they directly experienced. Although the chapters on 1960s and ’70s theatre does breakdown into lists of playwrights and their works, there is a focus on theatre as a broader experience – and I presume this was the period when the authors began their theatrical careers. A better book might have started with 1956 and been about the theatre the authors experienced and were part of.

The last chapter is strange. The authors jump back to Vsevolod Meyerhold and Antonin Artaud; advance through Peter Brook and Grotowski and Lepage, before mentioning a number of recent British playwrights. Obviously, Brook is an important figure in British theatre, but again the authors don’t bother to explain the importance of the others for British theatre. It feels as though they are rounding up all the figures they think they should have mentioned but hadn’t got around to in the previous chapters. It seems symptomatic of the book: everything has an enthusiasm, but is all a little muddled in structure and intention.

[Regret Husk · Rating 5 out of 5]

big man ting

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Used in a college course