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

Laura Silverman
Book reviewer

A Life in Three Acts by Bette Bourne and Mark Ravenhill
Methuen Drama, £8.99

Actor and gay rights activist Bette Bourne talks candidly to
playwright Mark Ravenhill about his life in this 90-minute show, on at
the Soho Theatre until February 27. In shaping his recorded
conversations with the actor, Ravenhill, who also directs, has kept a
natural-sounding flow to the speech patterns, with digressions and
pauses indicated in the text. The result is a frank and often wildly
funny script: a vivid look at Gay Lib, as well as a personal portrait
of a radical actor. Bourne also reveals the reactions he has faced
playing women on stage, including taking the part of Nurse in Romeo
and Juliet at the Globe in 2004. A Life in Three Acts
premiered at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh last year.

Arabian Nights adapted by Dominic Cooke
Nick Hern, £8.99

First seen at the Young Vic in 1998, the artistic director of the
Royal Court oversaw his adaptation of Arabian Nights more
recently for an eight-week run by the Royal Shakespeare Company in
Stratford-upon-Avon, closing a couple of weeks ago. This is a
bewitching script of stories within stories that reads like poetry,
including the fabulous tale of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. It’s
engaging and fast-paced.

Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield adapted by Alastair Cording
Nick Hern, £8.99

Charles Dickens was said to approve of Andrew Halliday’s adaptation of
his semi-autobiographical novel, staged as Little Em’ly in
1869. What would he make of this one? The reviews from Eastern Angles’
staging of Cording’s work, first in 1995 and then 2003, indicate he
would have been pleased. ‘All the drama, pathos and humour of David
Copperfield’s eventful young life are vividly realised in this
enthralling adaptation,’ said The Stage. If you’re performing
this script, there are ten main parts, including Betsey
Trotwood, Mr Murdstone, Peggotty, and the young and older Davids, as
well as ‘good roles’, say the notes, for 30 or more actors, if
desired. If you’re reading, the lines in this play are dramatic and
colourful.

The Space to Move by Christian Darley
Nick Hern, £12.99

The late movement director Christian Darley described rehearsals as
being like the inflation of a balloon. When the curtain rises, the
balloon is released: a bad rehearsal, when actors don’t show up,
directors are late or there are no warm-ups… ‘each is a little pin
slow-puncturing the balloon’. Darley was concerned with creating the
conditions for a good rehearsal: the right atmosphere, with the right
space for actors and a company to move. In this guide – Darley wrote
the draft just before she died in 1998 – she explains the importance
of contact work, why voice involves the whole body and the unusual
benefits of
students lying down on the floor. This is an intelligent and highly
perceptive book, with lucid descriptions, lively analogies and clearly
explained exercises, understanding, above all, that ‘Our bodies store
events in a far more complex way than do our minds or our so-called
memories’ and the implications that arise. The Space to Move
will be out on February 15.

Actor Training edited by Alison Hodge
Routledge, £21.99

Until the beginning of last century, Europe and Northern America, says
Alison Hodge, lacked the systematic training traditions of the East,
with its Balinese dance-drama and Indian Kathakali. Then along came
Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavsky with his attempt to
formulate a practical actor ‘system’. This wide-ranging collection of
essays, by British and American academics, compares the methods of
more than 20 Western practitioners, chapter by chapter, from Stella
Adler to Lee Strasberg. This edition has eight more practioners than
the first version, published as Twentieth Century Actor
Training a decade ago. Hodge is director of the international
ensemble The Quick and the Dead.

The Routledge Dance Studies Reader edited by Alexandra
Carter and Janet O’Shea
Routledge, £24.99

These essays for postgraduates and academics often couch complex,
specialist areas in formal, scholarly terms – not that the content is
always obscure or lacking in value. Contributions include a
mind-bending philosophical study asking ‘what is art?’, an interesting
analysis of Rennie Harris’s Rome & Jewels (Romeo and
Juliet), and an accessible first-hand account of choreographers
Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton by dancer Annabel Farjeon. This
is a significant reference book, if not an easy read.

The Art of Clowning by Eli Simon
Palgrave Macmillan, £17.99

To the uninitiated they seem to be merely messing around, doing what
they want without a care in the world or a thought in their head, but
a successful clown is no fool. Eli Simon’s informative guide is both a
delight to read in its celebratory tone and practical for anyone
forging a clown identity – whether for a children’s party or a comedic
role. Everything’s here – from nose etiquette, explained in a
wonderful deadpan way, through to developing your clown voice by
speaking gibberish. Frequent side headings makes for easy navigation,
and I loved the expressive photos, including a clown trying to drink a
watermelon. Just you try! Eli Simon is professor of acting at the
University of California, Irvine, and part of clown troupe Clownzilla.