Theatre in the expanded field : seven approaches to performance /

In establishing his "seven approaches to performance," Read (theater, King's College, London, UK) uses Richard Southern's The Seven Ages of the Theatre (1962) as a template, providing rich, eclectic studies of performance, pre- to postmodern. Each of the approaches reads like a performance monologue, teasing out the thesis that performance, "in the expanded field" of all human interaction, serves as a cultural irritant, celebrating contingency and playfulness as essential to the human animal. Read revisits Plato's cave by going to the caves of Lascaux. He makes a strong case that Inigo Jones should be considered the founder of modern theater. The book's performative dimension--hypnosis, telegraphy, psychoanalysis, fingerprinting; Freud, Daniel Paul Schreber, and the Nazi "euthanasia" program; art installations by Oleg Kulik and Forced Entertainment; the value of the university; performances as varied as Romeo Castellucci's controversial On the Concept of the Face and the megahit Les Misérables; Occupy London--leaves one admiring what has been done but perhaps questioning what the book is about. In fact, it is about "community," the concept Read returns to throughout. Theoretically sophisticated, academically challenging, and often very entertaining, this book will engage, irritate, and amuse the intellectually scrupulous and playfully inclined. --William W. Demastes, Louisiana State University