The Theatre of Revolt: An Approach to Modern Drama

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Summary: Eight great playwrights who questioned society
Review: An incisive look at the works of eight "playwrights of rebellion" since the birth of the modern theater. It is author Brustein's contention that western drama has moved from the "theater of communion" in which works are performed which reinforce the beliefs of the audience (and society), to a "theater of revolt" in which plays are produced which attack the values of the audience (and society.) Each chapter focuses on the life and works of a particular playwright, examining how he used drama as a means of critiqing his societal milieu, whether that criticism came in the form of a political ideology (Brecht), an aesthetic sensibility (Genet), or a metaphysical ontology (O'Neill, Strindberg.) What is of particular interest, albeit somewhat troubling, is Mr. Brustein's perception that each playwright was at his best in toppling conventions, but none was terribly adept at providing solutions to the problems they perceived. For example, it was in his "messianic" phase as a writer, heavily under the influence of Nietzche, that Eugene O'Neill wrote such flat and unsatisfying fare as "Lazarus Laughed." It wasn't until he gave up trying to provide solutions to life's problems, and instead concentrated on thoroughly exposing the nature of those problems that he produced such masterpieces as "The Iceman Cometh" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night." Overall, Mr. Brustein's book is an absorbing account of the continuing artistic struggle in the modern theater to locate meaning by forcing western society to question what it believes and why.