Performing Women: Female Characters, Male Playwrights, and the Modern Stage Book

Robert Brustein is a well-known academic in the theatre world, having established the Yale Repertory Theatre when he was working at Yale and established the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University, where he currently teaches. "The Theatre of Revolt" is one of his early books on theatre, published in 1962. He covers the modern theatre (late 19th and 20eth centuries) and approaches the authors he has selected with a common faculty of being part of "The Theatre of Revolt". The Revolt he mentions is indeed against the centuries old classical theatre starting with the ancient Greek writers (Sophocles at al) continuing with the Bard and coming as far as the works of Racine.

In the introductory chapter he classifies the works he will cover in the book into three threads which he calls the messianic, social and existential.

He starts with Henrik Ibsen and shows that although he started with messianic epics like Brand, Peer Gynt and Emperor and Galilean, he is more known for his later-era (modern phase) masterpieces such as A Doll's House and An Enemy of the People, ending with Hedda Gabler. Brustein covers the earlier, less-known period to show the hints of revolt in the plays of this master playwright more known for his subtle and quiet plays.

He continues with August Strindberg, who he shows to have reacted to several of Ibsen's play which he interprets as trying to undermine the masculine case. Brustein brings some Freudian interpretation to the perceived "woman-hate" Strindberg has sometimes been accused of. He covers two plays from Strindberg that explains his "worship" of the masculine: The Father and Miss Julie. He also covers The Dream Play, a grim phantasy reflecting Strindberg's contradictions.

The next revolter is Anton Chekhov. Brustein admits that it may seem like a strange choice to include a playwright who seems to be the gentlest, subtlest and the most dispassionate of all the great modern dramatists, but he proceeds to show that there is a revolt beneath the surface of most of Checkov's plays, but the technique he uses it does not expose it too openly. He covers The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard to support his position. This section probably contains the most interesting analysis in the book.

The next section is about Bernard Shaw, who supported a "frankly doctrinal theatre" to replace the "romantic" - a point of view fitting his socialist background. Brustein covers two epic plays by Shaw, Man and Superman and Back to Methuselah, rather than my favourite Pygmalion.

Brustein covers Brecht in the next section, but I was a bit disappointed by his treatment of Brecht as someone who is extremely divided by his ideological background and his uncertain convictions (my disappointment was stronger since I had bought the book specifically for the chapter on Brecht). He claims that Brecht was very much influenced by Büchner's Woyzeck and puts most of Brecht's work in the Existential Revolt category. I believe this is quite odd for someone who has almost single-handedly invented the Epic Theatre and introduced so many different techniques - such as Verfremdung (alienation) in contrast to techniques of identification actors used. He covers In the Jungle of the Cities and then tries to balance it by covering The Threepenny Opera in great length as well, then goes into Mother Courage and Her Children.

The next chapter covers Luigi Pirandello, especially his plays about the Theatre, including Six Characters In Search of an Author. Brustein favors Pirandello's Henry IV with its post-modern plot.

Brustein next covers Eugene O'Neill. Understanding that he should have at least one American playwright in his book, I can not imagine how he can not include Tennessee Williams, much more of a revolter than O'Neill. With this bias, I did not enjoy this chapter at all.

He concludes the book with an analysis of Antonin Artaud, the creator of Theatre of Cruelty and Jean Genet, its major practitioner. Although this chapter is a good analysis of this genre, it is surprising that he does not include Samuel Beckett, who had published most of his masterpieces by the time this book was written. Brustein acknowledges his error in the Preface to the 2nd edition he wrote in 1990, but the damage is done.

So, I would have given this a much higher rating if I did it in the 60's, but in this day and age the book seems a bit outdated, although some of the analysis is revealing and instructive.