Modern Theories of Drama

A Selection of Writings on Drama and Theatre 1850-1990

Edited and annotated by George W. Brandt

CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD 1998 Contents

Acknowledgements ix Introduction xiii

PART I General Theory

The Work of Art of the Future (1849) Richard Wagner 3 The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations (1895) Georges Polti 12 The Law of the Drama (1894) Ferdinand Brunetiere 19 >OThe Comic in Situations (1900) Henri Bergson 25 Melodrama (1966) Eric Bentley 35 For a Theatre of Situations (1947) Jean-Paul Sartre 42 XTheatre Problems (1954-5) Friedrich Durrenmatt 45 Theatre without a Conscience (1990) Howard Barker 55 Are There Universals of Performance in Myth, Ritual, and Drama? (1989) Victor Turner 62

PART 11 Varieties of Realism

The Relationship of Dramatic Art to its Age and Allied Matters: The Preface to Mary Magdalene (1844) Friedrich Hebbel 71 Naturalism (1881) Emile Zola 80 Author's Preface to Miss Julie (1888) August Strindberg 89 liffTlAgainst the Well-Made Play (1911) George Bernard Shaw 99 Death of a Salesman: A Modern Tragedy? (1958) Arthur Miller 106 vi Contents

PART in. Anti-Naturalism

The Tragical in Daily Life (1894) Maurice Maeterlinck 115 The Theatre (1899) William Butler Yeats 122 Certain Noble Plays of Japan (1917) William Butler Yeats 126 y On the Theatre: The Fairground Booth (1913) Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold 132 On the Art of the Theatre: The First Dialogue (1905) Edward Gordon Craig 138 Organic Unity (1921) Adolphe Appia 145 Memoranda on Masks (1932) Eugene O'Neill 153 A Dramatist's Notebook (1933) Eugene O'Neill 156 Author's Note to A Dream Play (1901) August Strindberg 158 X On the Futility of the 'Theatrical' in the Theatre (1896) Alfred Jarry 160 Preface and Prologue to The Breasts ofTiresias (1903)

GuillaumeApollinaire 165 Preface to The Immortals (1920) YvanGoll 171 Preface to Methusalem, the Eternal Bourgeois (1922) YvanGoll 174 The Futurist Synthetic Theatre (1915) Filippo Tommaso Marinetti 176 OnaNewTypeof Play (1920) Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz 182 The Theatre of Cruelty: First Manifesto (1932) Antonin Artaud 188 ^An End to Masterpieces (1933) Antonin Artaud 195 Y The Theatre's New Testament (1964) Jerzy Grotowski 200 Holy Theatre: Happenings (1968) Peter Brook 205 The London Controversy: Tynan v. Ionesco (1958) 208

PART iv. Political Theatre

Letter to a Creative Collaborator (1922) Ernst Toller 217 The Programme of the Proletarian Theatre (1920) Erwin Piscator 220 The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre: Notes to the Opera Rise and Fall of the Town ofMahagonny (1930) Bertolt Brecht 224 A Short Organum for the Theatre (1948) Bertolt Brecht 232 Contents vii

The Material and the Models: Notes Towards a Definition of Documentary Theatre (1968) Peter Weiss 247 Poetics of the Oppressed (1974) AugustoBoal 254 Political Dynamics: The Feminisms (1986) Michelene Wandor 261

PARTV. Semiotics Dynamics of the Sign in the Theatre (1940) Jindrich Honzl 269 Semiotics of Theatrical Performance (1977) UmbertoEco 279 Psychic Polyphony (1986) Marvin Carlson 288 The Signs of Stage and Screen (1987) Martin Esslin 299 y Avant-Garde Theatre and Semiology: A Few Practices and

the Theory Behind Them (1982) Patrice Pavis 307

Select Bibliography 317

Index 329