This companion to theatre history is a little different from other edited collections and encyclopedias I have come across in the past. In this book the editors and contributors attempt to explain their intentions, thought processes and change of ideas or strategy and this thread runs through the whole work. An acknowledgement at the beginning of the volume notes that the editors and contributors attended a symposium “Why Theatre History” at Royal Holloway, University of London a short while after the Cambridge Companion to Theatre History was commissioned, and that the comments from the audience helped to clarify and re-imagine the book. We can see this explicitly in chapter 19 – The Internet: History 2.0 by Jacky Bratton and Grant Tyler Peterson wherein the intended subject matter for the chapter became something quite different based on Jacky Bratton's e-mail discussions with a young attendee (Peterson) about theatre history and digital media. It feels as though we as readers are shown “back stage” as it were, and given a glimpse into the construction of this work.
The book itself is split into five sections – Why, When, Where, What and How, each containing articles from 20 international contributors. Part 1, Why? is an introduction from editor David Wiles wherein he confronts some of the problems facing himself and the contributors when examining and interpreting history and then constructing a narrative which pays attention to the values (positive and negative) of the past, whilst still recognising the importance of present day attitudes. Wiles argues that theatre historians have been reluctant to study “big stories” which would attract readers as these stories might be considered morally suspect to a twenty-first century audience – elitist, racist, sexist and so on. He states that the aim of all the contributors was to acknowledge both the diversity of our modern day world, but also accept and examine events in the past as they were – “points of intersection between a vertical line that cuts into the past and a horizontal line that reaches sideways into the present” (pp. 3-6).
Each subsequent section begins with an introduction to set out its purpose and direction and how each article progresses these ideas. Part 2 When? deals primarily with how theatre historians have mapped the past, and how they re-imagine and re-interpret not only past events, but other historians' interpretations of these events using new theories and ideas. The chapters in this section are deliberately arranged chronologically from modernist theatre in chapter 1 to classical theatre in chapter 5 to mirror genealogical methodology which typically begins in the present and moves backwards. There is also an indicative timeline provided as a guide ranging from c.430BCE (Sophocles' Oedipus Rex) to 1953 and the première in Paris of Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
Key themes discussed are the definition of “modernity” in this modern world, the role of historiography in examining theatre history, the effect of politics, capitalism and religion on the development of European theatre, the problems in trying to define periods of theatre history and the terminology used by different schools of historical thought throughout the years, and how the interpretation of history is affected by personal knowledge and the era in which the historian lived. History as presented in this section is constantly shifting, changing and evolving as time progresses and a study of theatre history benefits from acknowledging the layers of study and knowledge which have built up over time.
Part 3, Where? is a geographic section concentrating on three locations (Liverpool, Finland and Egypt) as well as a study of Japanese Noh theatre and a consideration of global theatre history. The aim of this section is to consider theatre history from different global perspectives and how these perspectives can affect historical interpretation. Liverpool is chosen as a case study to cover perspectives of regional “repertory” theatre, which seems to exist as a poor relation to the West End in London, and also because of how the Liverpudlian identity, almost a nationality in and of itself, translates to the Liverpool stage. The presentation of theatre which relies on local knowledge, acknowledgement of particular events, landmarks and stereotypes is expanded upon in the article on Finland which concentrates on the problems of language, particularly the struggle for dominance between Swedish language and Finnish language works, and also the barriers language presents in having Finnish work recognised in the pantheon of European theatre. The chapter on Egypt considers theatre in the context of the very recent overthrow of the Mubarak regime, tracing the origins of Egyptian theatre from the mid-nineteenth century and considering the role of politics in its development. The study of Japanese Noh theatre raises questions of how theatre historians should interpret and contextualise this tradition in relation to other (western) forms of theatre, and finally Marvin Carlson's chapter, Reflections on a Global Theatre History considers the initial focus of theatre history in the nineteenth century on a few distinct Western countries, and how this focus has only just shifted and broadened in the twenty-first century.
In the introduction to Part 4, What? the key question posed is, what should the historian be most concerned with – the play on the stage, or the play as experienced by the audience? Is it staged activity put in front of a static audience, or is the experience interactive, and how does the role of the actor fit in? The section as a whole looks at the role of the audience and the nature of their participation in the dramatic event (for example how applause follows conventions which have developed over the years – William Sauter in his chapter on the audience notes that silence following a theatrical set piece such as the 32 fouettés sequence in Swan Lake would be almost unthinkable). The art of acting, the schools, historical influences on technique and the grand traditions (Stanislavski for example) are also considered as is musical theatre and the clash between perceived “high” and “low” cultures. The section ends with a chapter on the circus and what place this has in theatre history.
Part 5 is How? and looks at the “art” of historical study from interpreting evidence to archiving to the role of the internet. The first chapter looks at the role of the theatre historian – what it is that they actually do, using as a case study the death of Christopher Marlowe to illustrate methodology, the use of primary and secondary evidence and the challenges of interpreting a significant historical event. The second chapter uses Hamlet to discuss the challenges faced when building historical knowledge through visual records, and what these sources can tell us about costuming, staging and theatrical interpretation through the centuries. Next, the idea of theatre museums and collections is considered, particularly how the construction of archives has become influenced by new historiographical and archival theories, and how necessary historical records are when shaping revivals of old productions.
The final two chapters delve deeper into the concept of interactivity that was touched upon during the chapter on the role of the audience in part 4. There is a chapter on re-enactment – groups of people who dress up and re-enact key events from the past, such as the Napoleonic wars, or the Wars of the Roses, or those who participate in immersive television experiments such as the 1900s House made by Channel 4 in 1999. The chapter considers the crossover between actor and re-enactor and how the body can be employed to explore the past and also asks if this genuinely can increase historical understanding bearing in mind that the re-enactment is someone's interpretation of a past life, the total accuracy of which we have no way of judging. Finally, as I noted above, Jacky Bratton and Grant Tyler Peterson's chapter, originally intended to be about the history of the comic, changed as a result of e-mail conversations between the two contributors about whether theatre history has traditionally ignored digital media and how the internet can contribute to the progression of this discipline, through sourcing materials for example, but how historians still need to interrogate those internet sources using traditional scholarly techniques.
As stated in the introduction to Part 2, this is not a book about the history of the theatre, but a companion to the discipline of theatre history, how this has progressed, developed and been adapted over the years and also the role and techniques of the theatre historian. It is a scholarly and theoretical work which covers a range of genres and styles from classical Greek to twenty-first century theatrical television and would be a good addition for humanities collections, particularly in the fields of film and theatre, literature and history.
