1st Edition

Performing Brecht

By Margaret Eddershaw Copyright 1996

    Performing Brecht is an unprecedented history of the productions of Brecht's plays in Britain over forty years. Margaret Eddershaw surveys all aspects of Brecht in performance, from his methodologies to his place in postmodernist theatre and beyond.
    She focuses on key productions by directors including George Devine, Sam Wanamaker, William Gaskill, Howard Davies, John Dexter and Richard Eyre. Eddershaw also provides three in-depth case studies of productions in the 1990s, incorporating her own exclusive access to the rehearsals and in-depth interviews with directors and performers. The case studies are:
    * The Good Person of Sechuan, directed by Deborah Warner and starring Fiona Shaw;
    * Mother Courage, directed by Philip Prowse and starring Glenda Jackson;
    * The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, directed by Di Trevis and starring Antony Sher

    INTRODUCTION 1 BRECHT AND THE PERFORMER: MEASURING THE DISTANCE 2 PERFORMING EARLY BRITISH BRECHT: FOLLOWING THE BERLINER 3 PERFORMING BRECHT POST-1968: THE RADICAL RESPONSES 4 PERFORMING ‘CLASSICAL’ BRECHT: MAKING THE STRANGE FAMILIAR 5 PERFORMING BRECHT IN THE 1990s: THREE APPROACHES TO POST-WALL BRECHT 6 PERFORMING BRECHT IN THE TWENTY-FIRST

    Biography

    Margaret Eddershaw was a founder member of the Department of Theatre Studies at Lancaster University, and during her twenty-five years there she combined an academic career with professional performing, directing and playwriting. She now lives in Greece, where she continues to write on and for the theatre.