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Dumbocracy in America - Studies in the Theatre of Guilt, 1987-1994 (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R843
Discovery Miles 8 430
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Dumbocracy in America - Studies in the Theatre of Guilt, 1987-1994 (Hardcover)
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A clever title for what is essentially a grab-bag collection of
think pieces, reviews, and profiles by the founder of the American
Repertory Theatre at Harvard and drama critic for The New Republic.
Brustein (Who Needs Theatre, 1987, etc.) is a sheep in wolf's
clothing. He attacks causes like multiculturalism and political
correctness, but hiding beneath his tough-guy, Bill Buckley
exterior is a squishy, liberal heart of gold. He fears that
multiculturalism in the theater is "turning [it] into an area of
entitlement rather than a place for art." He faults message-plays
(what he calls "the theatre of guilt") because "the artist [is] not
in a position to chastise others before exploring the darkness in
his own soul." He is a classicist in drama, preferring plays in
which the characters discover that (to paraphrase Shakespeare) the
fault lies in themselves, not in the stars. But his taste in the
theater is fairly broad: Anyone who can find common ground between
the one-woman shows of sociologist/cultural critic Anna DeVeare
Smith and acerbic comedian Jackie Mason can't be all bad. Brustein
is also a canny critic of what motivates both theater creators and
theatergoers. Of Peter Brook's lengthy production of the
Mahabharata, he writes that the director seemed intent on
transforming "well-padded bourgeois theatergoers into butt-weary
acolytes of arcane Eastern mysteries." And Brustein is capable of
turning his keen eye on more mundane affairs, writing a searing
account of the Clarence Thomas hearings as high-camp theater,
categorizing the roles of the unwitting senators: Alan Simpson as
"Mr. Nasty Badman"; Arlen Specter as the "remorseless small-town
prosecutor"; and Joseph Biden as unable to "even manage a coherent
line of dialogue." To-the-point essays on the role of drama in
America and, indirectly, the life and health of the arts. (Kirkus
Reviews)
The theatre as mirror of our peculiar politics - this is the theme
of Robert Brustein's engaging new collection of writings. In
essays, reviews, and profiles, Mr. Brustein uses the prism of the
American theatre to explore the motivating impulses behind rampant
political correctness and to assess government efforts to regulate
the arts. His complaint that the critical function of drama is now
to arouse the remorse of a guilty audience is brilliantly
illustrated.
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