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Avant Garde Theatre

1892-1992

By: Christopher Innes

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Hardcover | 20 May 1993 | Edition Number 2

At a Glance

Hardcover
272 Pages

Edition Type
New edition

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.6 x 1.6

Hardcover

RRP $368.00

$315.99

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Examining the development of avant garde theatre from its inception in the 1890s to the present day, Christopher Innes exposes a central paradox of modern theatre; that the motivating force of theatrical experimentation is primitivism. What links the work of Strindberg, Artaud, Brook and Mnouchkine is an idealization of the elemental and a desire to find ritual in archaic traditions. This widespread primitivism, he argues, is the key to understanding both the political and aesthetic aspects of modern theatre and provides fresh insights into contemporary social trends.
The original text, first published in 1981 as "Holy Theatre, " has been completely revised to take account of the most recent theoretical developments in anthropology, critical and intercultural theory and psychotherapy. Additional sections on Heiner Muller, Robert Wilson, Eugenio Barba, Ariane Mnouchkine and Sam Shepard have been added. As a result, the book now deals with all the major avant garde theatre practitioners.
"Avant Garde Theatre" is essential reading for anyone attempting to understand contemporary drama. Not only does it provide a coherent perspective on what is often seen as confusingly diverse, its analysis of performance and the relationship of staging to theory will interest a general audience.

Industry Reviews

"Christopher Innes's encyclopedic "Avant Garde Theatre, 1892-1992, creates order out of theories, movements, cults, groups, and writers from the canonical, like Strindberg and Pirandello, to the most "anthropological" of experimenters like Eugenio Barba. It is difficult to imagine the need for any other survey of the topic, though Innes is no mere cartographer. With his customary intelligence and clarity, Innes identifies the principles that unify as well as those that distinguish avant gardism from modernism or postmodernism, avoiding the latter terms as far as possible. This, as I see it, may be the book's most important contribution to scholarship."-"The American Book Review "Innes has produced a brilliant, sensitive, articulate statement. It deserves serious study by all of those whose practice and commitment is toward an understanding and expression of this century's theatre."From the reviews of the first edition: -"Choice

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