'The Theory of the Modern Stage' edited by Eric Bentley

'If my readers are not more sophisticated than this before they read this book, I hope they will be afterwards.' An admirable aim for any book and quite possibly justified as these essays by some of the great practitioners of theatre will give a lot to work with.

From Adolphe Appia to Alexis de Tocqueville 'The Theory of the Modern Stage' edited by Eric Bentley covers a range of topics such as the sociology of modern drama, naturalism, the Theatre of Cruelty and much more.  A book to dip in and out with nourishing ideas and experiments.

In such a book you will find statements such as: 'the root of all evil in modern art, and especially in the art in drama, Wagner finds to be the fact that 'modern art is a mere product of culture, and not sprung from life itself.'  

And from George Lukacs:  Man's significance consists only of this, that the game cannot be played without him, that men are the only possible hieroglyphs with which the mysterious inscription may be composed...'  Statements that theatrical types often make which may surprise some but comes naturally to them and their way of thinking.

For the history of theatre (this was published in 1968) it is almost invaluable as a beginning to understand the world of theatre.  And though some ways of doing things become unfashionable and done better this is also the way of things, for as Georg Brandes says: 'what cannot stand the ideas of the time must succumb.'