Theatre Is Not Safe

by Gordon Rogoff

Book by Gordon Rogoff

Paperback

First published April 1, 1987

Reviews

[Kathryn Baron]

A very prolix writer. Quite confident in his opinions and grand pronouncements. These are more refections inspired by plays than actual reviews. Comparisons to Polonius are perhaps not unwarranted. Pretentious Twadle. Slightly amusing when skewering someone evidently even more pretentious. Many references are lost to time - his original audience may have had no issues comprehending him - not so much these 60 some years later. Very occasionally he stops pontificating long enough to paint a verbal picture of a show - and he does it very well.

THE SIXTIES:
• The Juggernaut of Production: *
• Brecht on Broadway *
• The Brig: The Anarchist's Middle Ground *
• A Play by Any Other Name **
• Anouilh and Osborne: Intellect without
Intelligence *
• Following Beckett *
• Blues for Mr. Baldwin *
• Hamlet without Peers ***
• Joan Littlewood's Lovely War ***
• Lee Strasberg: Burning Ice *
• A Streetcar Named Kazan *
• Longing for Moscow **
• Shakespeare with Tears **
• Sean O'Casey's Exile *
• The Companies They Keep
• Tennessee Descending
• The Impossible Herbert Blau
• The Myth of Director's Theatre
• Auschwitz and the Illusion of Docudrama
• Olivier's Vaulting Art
• What Would You Think If I Sang out of Tune?
• Living at This Hour

THE SEVENTIES
• University Theatre: The Marble Wasteland
• The Last Gentleman-Actor
• Otherwise Obsessed 136
• Tiny Albee 139
• Long Night's Journey 142
• Musicals and the Unquiet American 144
• The Very Little Mahagonny 147
• Stephen Poliakoff: Blind Anger 150
• Liviu Ciulei: Murder by Concept 152
• The Unfinished Theatre of Jjoseph Chaikin 154
• VMax Prlsch: Drama of Footnotes 157
• Clone Theatre 160
• Peter Brookt Ubu Raw 163
• The Merits of Obscurlty 165

THE EIGHTIES
• Those Dancing Fect 170
• The Shouting Epldemic 172
• Jukebox Theatre 175
• The Set 1s Half the Job 177
• The Ravages of Modishness 179
• Phrase Slinging 182
• Boxed Stages 184
• Sir Joseph Papp 187
• Nothing Fails Like Success 190
• Class Unconsciousness 192
• The Meyerhold Train 194
• More Beckett, But Less 196
• Brecht in Cold Country 199
• The American Way of Theatre Death 201
• Theatre der Welt Discovers America 203
• Bentley's Brecht 208
• Shaw vs. Shaw 210
• The Old Virtuosity Shop 212
• Malle Treatment 216
• The Management of Management 214
• Vanessa Redgrave Is Not the Enemy 219
• Kantor Seen and Not Heard 223
• On Not Attending Theatre 225
• Bold Coward 227
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• Shall I Compare Thee? 230
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• Beggars Must Choose 232
• To a Hare 235
• Sontag in the Park 237
• A Rosemary for Remembrance 240
• Rosalyn Drexler: Theatre Whirled 242
• No, We`re Not 244
• Bill lrwin's Dumb Show 246
• Neil Simon for President 247
• Nathalie Sarraute: Fighting Words 249
• Lillian Hellman's Bad Trouble 251
• Lost Shepard 253
• Crying Steppenwolf 255
• Peter Sellars: Auteur Hauteur 257
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• John Guare: Bananas Republic 260
• Chekhov with Wings 262
• Manifest Fo 264
• Jesurun and Fabre: Perchance to Dream 266
• Richard Foreman: Internal Gestures 269
• Martha Clarke's True Danube 271
• mMy Mind's Eye, Horatio 273
• The Elusive Object, The Fading Craft 276
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