Review by Choice Review
Milling and Lay's book is mostly a summary and critical reading (i.e., evaluative assessment) of theorists, theories, and their sources. The authors also attempt to clarify and dispute particular theoretical points and to introduce readers to texts and their contexts (although they give the latter cursory treatment). The selection--and in some cases pairing--of Stanislavsky, Appia and Craig, Meyerhold and Copeau, Artaud, and Boal seems overly familiar and unnecessarily broad yet limiting. The authors' assertion in their preface of the difficulty of theatrical theory seems quaint given the current state of the field, the conservatism of the book's topical choices, and the assumptions that can now be made of and by all but the least-informed reader in the field. This reviewer was disappointed to discover that a volume of "modern theories" includes so little on the vast number of theorists and theorized sources of the 20th century (e.g., the authors devote a scant five pages to theatrical theory after Boal). Much more theory is covered, contextualized, and analyzed in works by Carlson, Reinelt, Roach, et al.--not to mention in all of the books that deal with the aforementioned theorist-practitioners individually--that specific points aside this reviewer cannot argue for the present title. Comprehensive collections only. S. Golub Brown University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
