Contents xi Preface xv Acknowledgments Acting and Directing 3 The Figure in the Carpet: Peter Brook and Erland Josephson 6 E. B. on Acting: Eric Bendey 13 The Low Points: The Wooster Group 16 Buzz Words: Ping Chong 18 Directorially Bound: Ingmar Bergman, Robert Wilson, and Others 21 Post-Neo-Vaudeville: Bill Irwin and Barbara Cook 24 Cinderella Double Take: Anne Bogart 26 Future Lieder: John Kelly 28 Power to the Actor: Donald Wolfit, Campbell Scott, and Others 33 The Neutral Space: Judi Dench, Simon Callow, and Others 40 Carnal Knowledge: Ariane Mnouchkine 46 Ibsen, Wilson, and the Play of Time: Robert Wilson 48 The Presence of Joe: Joseph Chaikin V vi CONTENTS Playwriting 59 Transfer at Elysian Fields: Tennessee Williams 64 Vienna Woulds: Arthur Schnitzler 66 Harmed Play: Mac Wellman 68 Coup de Lace: Joseph Kesselring 71 Not Fear Itself: Franz Xaver Kroetz 75 Les Liaisons Abstruse: Heiner Muller 78 Comedy of Mannerisms: Somerset Maugham andS.N.Behrman 81 Posing for Playboy: John Millington Synge 83 Samish: Mike Nichols's Godot; Frederick Neumann's Worstward Ho 87 Ail-Consuming and Condescending: Pam Gems 90 Bound and Gagged: Neil Simon 92 A House Is Not a Poem: Federico Garcia Lorca 94 All My Plots: Arthur Miller 96 Serving Two Masters: Carlo Goldoni and Cole Porter 100 Half-Caste: Jean Racine and Tony Harrison 102 Still in the Woods: Lee Blessing 105 Party Games: Harold Pinter 108 The Seductions of Cynicism: David Mamet in Ahead of Himself: Larry Kramer 113 Triumph of the Words: George Bernard Shaw 115 The Fugitive Play: Tennessee Williams 120 Lost Soul: Albert Innaurato 125 Three-Inch Pickings: Charles Ludlam 126 Anniversary Schmaltz: Maxwell Anderson 129 Trip to Fanciful: Tina Howe 132 Angels in America, Devils in the Wings: Tony Kushner CONTENTS vff Shakespeare and the Brits 145 British Theater: The Fight Against Situational Chat 151 Neocolonial Puns and Games: The National Theatre of Great Britain 154 Uneasy Lie the Crowns: Wilfred Lawson and Others 156 Richard Unbeckoned: Joseph Papp in Central Park 159 Et Al, Brute: Al Pacino 161 The Abbey Theatre: Speechless at Last 162 Out, Out, Loose Canon: The New York Shakespeare Festival 165 Brevity Is the Soul of Grit: Dustin Hoffman 167 Ardent Sex Change: Christopher Grabowski 169 Cracking the Code: Hugh Whitemore 172 Theater Mania: Peter Hall and Others 176 Serious Money: Caryl Churchill 179 Sublime Neglect: George Chapman and Others 183 Hare Today: David Hare 185 Playing with Ire: Alex Jennings, Peter O'Toole, and Mark Rylance Operas and Musicals 191 That True Phoenix, da Ponte: Lorenzo da Ponte 200 Emotional Weather: Notes on Alban Berg's Theater 213 Don Juan in Hell's Kitchen: Peter Sellars 215 Out of the Woods: Stephen Sondheim 217 Fats-uosity Triumphant: Nell Carter and Others 220 Stratasphere: Teresa Stratas and Others 222 Two Cheers for Booing: Bayreuth 226 Cliff Notes: Robert Wilson and Others VTH CONTENTS Ideas, Obits, and the Critical Act 235 The Management Game 245 Geraldine Page 246 The Birth of a Notion 249 Cry God for Larry: Laurence Olivier 252 Richard Hayes 253 Theater Without Programs 258 Othello's Occupation's Gone 262 The Leader We Invented: Joseph Papp 265 Did Dinosaurs Dream 268 Jerzy Grotowski Endgames 273 Legacies and Their Discontents 283 The Critic Vanishes 293 Index.