Worth a Read: Theatre Books Round-up – Aug 2010

Women, Shakespeare and Simon Gray seem to be dominating the recent output
of
theatre books. There’ll be plenty to keep you occupied with the last –
five
compilations of Simon Gray plays, as well as The Early Diaries,
which
chronicles his experience putting on Dog Days and The Common
Pursuit. For theatre-related beach reading, go for The Great
Lie
– a novel about the conflict between Shakespeare and Marlowe by
82-year-old
actress Myrrha Stanford-Smith. And when you return to concentration mode,
seek out The Routledge Companion to Directors’ Shakespeare, which
examines and compares approaches from Peter Brooks to Peter Hall.

Laura Silverman
Book reviewer

The Reluctant Escapologist by Mike Bradwell, Nick Hern Books

‘Real theatre must be sexy, subversive, dangerous and fun,’ says Mike
Bradwell in this funny and frank account of his involvement in two fringe
theatre companies: Hull Truck, which he established in 1971 and ran for 11
years, and the Bush Theatre, where he was artistic director from 1996 to
2007. From eating fire with Bob Hoskins to becoming an underwater
escapologist in the Ken Campbell Roadshow, Bradwell has many a
story
to tell, which he does here with a brilliant directness. There are some
wonderful nostalgic black and white photos, including Bradwell in Mike
Leigh’s Bleak Moments in 1971 and in performances at Hull Truck
later
that decade. The only quibble is the text size: it’s readable, but small.

Art, Theatre & Women’s Suffrage by Irene Cockroft & Susan
Croft, Aurora Metro, £7.99

Call to mind a suffragette icon and the Pankhurst sisters are more likely
to
appear than the Actress Franchise League. Here, two academics set the
record
straight, looking at how the battle for the vote was won, at least in
part,
by artists, writers and actresses in the early twentieth century. Founded
in
1908 by a group of performers, including Ellen Terry, the AFL organised
meetings, sold literature, wrote plays and delivered lectures to support
the
feminist cause. Cockcroft and Croft give them a decent 30-page chapter,
set
out mainly as a list of biographies of the influential figures, from the
actress Ellen Terry to shop assistant Vera Wentworth. This book ties in
with
an exhibition curated by the authors at the Museum of Richmond, which runs
until Sept 4.

Classic Plays for Women edited and introduced by Susan Croft, Aurora Metro Press, £16.99

This doorstop volume claims to be the first anthology of British and Irish
female playwrights to include plays across 400 years. It’s outstandingly
diverse, starting with an extract from Hrotswitha’s Paphnutius, dating
back
to AD 960, and ending with Marie Jones’s Stones in his Pockets, written
in 1996. The most recognisable name is Caryl Churchill – Croft includes
an
act from Top Girls – but this collection really excels in
collecting
together just as influential, though less well-known, playwrights. These
include Elizabeth Cary, the first English Renaissance women to have had an
original play published and Aphra Behn, whose play The Rover is one
of only two plays by women from the seventeenth and eighteenth century to
have been produced by the RSC.

The Early Diaries by Simon Gray, Faber & Faber

Simon Gray’s memories are as important to his legacy as his 40 or so
plays,
providing an acute psychological acumen inaccessible to any biographer and
a
literary commentary on his output to equal the highest academic.
(Admittedly, Gray was also a university lecturer.) The Early
Diaries
comprises the first two instalments of his diaries: An Unnatural
Pursuit and How’s That For Telling ‘Em Fat Lady?

The former, which runs from November 1983 to August 1984, tells of the
London production of The Common Pursuit, and is particularly sharp
on
Gray’s relationship with Harold Pinter, who directed many of his plays.
This
was more than ten years before their temporary falling out. The second,
which records December 1985 to October 1986, describes Gray putting on
The Common Pursuit and Dog Days in Los Angeles and New York.
With Gray being as scathing about his colleagues as he is
self-deprecating,
this 470-page tome is both entertaining and marvellously insightful.

Simon Gray: Plays 1-5 by Simon Gray, Faber & Faber, £16.99 each

Get Simon Gray’s ultimate back catalogue with these five weighty
compilations of his plays, including The Common Pursuit (volume
four)
and The Late Middle Classes (volume five).

The Great Lie by M Standford-Smith, Honno
This novel has drawn attention over recent months as the debut work of an
82-year-old. A trained actress, Myrrha Stanford-Smith worked with Sir
Tyrone
Guthrie in the West End, before moving into teaching and directing.
Stanford-Smith, who now lives in Holyhead in North Wales, is still at
work,
directing a production of Richard III with the Ucheldre Repertory Company
this autumn – and now busying herself with writing.

Taking the reader behind the scenes of the Elizabethan stage and court,
The Great Lie explores the rivalry between Shakespeare and
Christopher Marlowe. The first of a planned trilogy, it follows
16-year-old
Nick Talbot run away with a troupe of travelling players to London where
he
comes to Marlowe’s attention and gets caught up in espionage and politics.
Written with warmth and plenty of colour, this novel is great fun. Watch
this space for the follow-ups.

The Routledge Companion to Directors’ Shakespeare edited by
John Russell Brown, Routledge

Faced with putting on a Shakespeare play, has a director ever protested:
‘Hasn’t the Bard been done to death?’ If so, they should turn to this
550-page book, which that even the zillionth production of Romeo &
Juliet? or Othello or The Tempest or Much Ado About
Nothing can stand out. Each of the 31 chapters profiles an influential
director, from Peter Brooks to Peter Hall, highlighting just how different
interpretations and the resulting productions can be.

Declan Donnellan’s approach with Cheek by Jowl, for example, is to let the
words speak for themselves; his productions have a minimalist set and he
lets the actors decide where to go on stage. Whereas Japanese director
Ninagawa Yukio takes inspiration from Kabuki and Bunraku, without changing
a
line of text. In his Macbeth, there were samurais fighting bloody
battles using Japanese martial arts; the three witch-like women had
spectacularly opulent costumes, as Japanese costumes tend to be; and
Banquo’s feast took place Eastern-style with the actors sitting on the
floor
rather than at a table.

Written by leading academics, this is a fascinating reference book for
students and for the serious enthusiast. Its style is easily readable,
though its size asks for it to be read at a desk, or at least not on a
crowded train.

Theatre Buildings: A Design Guide edited by Judith Strong, Routledge
From the shape of the stage to the position of the lights, there are many
considerations to be made in designing a theatre. This large hardback
seems
to cover them all. First produced by the Association of British Theatre
Technicians in 1972, this version has several additions, including a
section
on using video in performance. It also takes into account the economic and
social pressures for the theatres to now be as efficient as possible –
from
saving electricity to using backstage rooms for conferences.

While written in fairly straightforward prose with a glossary for the
technical terms, this is a specialist guide. Pages on ventilation, for
example, are unlikely to captivate the average reader, but there’s enough
to
interest the serious enthusiast and anyone in the crew of an amateur
company. The last part of the book, comprising 28 case studies of theatres
worldwide, is particularly good. The Crucible in Sheffield is given four
whole pages, including a brief history, architectural details, a colour
picture of the main auditorium and diagrams of the stage. Other theatres
include the art deco Mahaffey Theatre in Florida and the Roundhouse in
London. You’ll soon realise there’s more to a theatre than a stage.

A Choreographer’s Handbook by Jonathan Burrows, Routledge
Burrows has laid out the categories in his book of thoughts in the order
he
choreographs a work. The first chapter is a series of ideas about
principles, including the innovative use of a quote by scientist Francis
Crick, one half of the team that discovered DNA: ‘It’s true that by
blundering about we stumbled on gold, but the fact remains that we were
looking for gold.’ Burrows goes on to look at material, habits,
repetition,
research and scores, among other terms, making brief, poignant and
sometimes
cryptic observations. On audience, for example, he says merely: ‘The
audience like to have a job to do.’

This unconventional approach guide to dance, aimed at those familiar with
choreography, shouldn’t, of course, surprise anyone also familiar with
Burrows’ own pieces, which are known for its intelligence, humour and
sometimes lack of lighting, costumes or even music. His work has included
a
stint as associate director on Peter Handke’s The Hour We Knew Nothing
of
Each Other for the National Theatre in 2008 and the acclaimed piece
Both Sitting Duet which premiered in 2002, in which two dancers
have
a silent conversation with their arms.