Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1981 - 42

_Ga_rren_Book Reviews

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Lo_is

Umberto Brunelteschi: Fashion Stylist, Illustrator, Stage and Costume Designer, Introduction by Cristina Nuzzi. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1979, ISBN 0-8478-0225-8, 96 pp., III.,
$12.50 paper.
Rizzoli provides theatre designers with another glimpse of the decorative past. Umberto Brunelteschi is in keeping with the Rizzoli tradition of artistically significant books.
In Cristina Nuzzi's terse text, Brunelleschi is placed beside Leon
Bakst, Alexander Benois, Erte, Georges Barbier and Georges Lepape
as a strong force in twentieth-century stage costume design and
scenography. While the text reveals the events and people of Brunelleschi's career from 1900 to 1949, it does not discuss, in any critical
way, his design work. Plaudits, though, should be given the author for
her care in revealing the proximity of the parallel careers of these
other artists. The reader is able to better understand the Russian and
particularly the Paris designers involved in the Art Nouveau and Art
Deco stage design and graphic movements through Nuzzi's text.
Although the text is brief, it is more than compensated for by the
richness of the illustrations. The nine by nine inch format provides excellent space for more than sixty color plates. The illustrations have
been wisely chosen. They include unique designs that represent stylistic milestones in Brunelleschi's career, as well as six groups of designs which are representative of his design approach to a complete
(or nearly complete) production.
Since we seem to be in a period of rediscovery, it is appropriate
that illustrator-designers like Brunelleschi be re-examined. This master of color and motif has a great deal to offer designers of the latter
twentieth century.
Leon I. Brauner

Indiana University

The London Theatre World, 1660-1800, edited by Robert D. Hume.
Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press,
1980. ISBN 0-809300962-2, xxx+394pp., illus., $18.50.
This volume is a Festschrift honoring A. H. Scouten on his 70th
birthday. Scouten is one of the editors of The London Stage, 16001800, a series of volumes well known to theatre historians and scholars. The book contains twelve essays on various aspects of the English stage from the Restoration to the beginning of the nineteenth
century. This period of 140 years encompassed major changes in
British theatre practice. In almost every respect, the authors of the
several essays which make up the book illuminate and amplify the
subjects covered. Robert D. Hume, a prominent Restoration scholar,
served as editor of the book and, for the most part, he has succeeded
in assembling a sound mix of topic and a critical point of view.
Chapters are devoted to Company Management, The Theatres,
Scenery and Technical Design, Evidence to Be Found in the Extant
Promptbooks, Actors and the Performance Function, The Making of
the Repertory, Music as Drama, The Changing Audience, Political and
Social Thought in the Drama, Dramatic Censorship, Publication of
Plays, and The London Theatre at the end of the Eighteenth Century.
Perhaps the largest problem with the book is one probably found in
any Festschrift. That is one of overlap where one author's essay is
closely related to that of another. As a consequence, facts are stated
in essay number three, let us say, and these same facts turn up again

Theatre Design & Technology

in essay four and, perhaps in essay seven. To be more precise, Edward A. Langhans wrote the second essay on "The Theatres." The
third essay, written by Colin Visser, is devoted to "Scenery and Technical Design." Visser does not write as well as Langhans and, probably through no fault of his own nor of Professor Langhans, his essay
covers many of the same areas already described. It can be argued,
of course, that some repetition of basic ideas will invariably assist the
reader who needs more than a single description of something to
completely comprehend it.
For readers of TD& T, the two essays noted above may prove to be
the most interesting in the book. Langhans does trace the development of theatre design and structural function-it is in this area that
he and Visser overlap most noticeably-thoroughly, though some of
his coverage is occasionally haphazard. For instance, he has very
little to say about Thomas Killigrew's original theatre in Drury Lane.
The structure built in 1663 and destroyed by fire eleven years later is
sometimes referred to as "The Theatre Royal in Brydges-or
Bridges-St." It was followed by a second Drury Lane designed by
Christopher Wren which occupied the site until 1791 . I wish Langhans
had had more to say about the original Drury Lane playhouse.
Visser's essay on Scenic Methods and Practice does not read easily. Rather than develop a chronological survey of scenic method, he
chooses to treat the several scenic areas of the stage categorically.
That is to say he talks about "forestage, and the walls, doors and balconies of the proscenium" and then moves on to "wings, shutters and
borders." Though the changes in technology from 1660 to 1800 were
by no means as rapid as in a more recent period, 1820-1960 for instance, all of the scenic elements did undergo varying usage and, as
production approaches changed, the use of the wings, shutters, upstage discovery area and the overhead borders changed also. Visser's discussion of scenic development is, therefore, less coherent
than it might be. Too often, he seems to be writing out of context.
The most satisfying essay in the book for me was Philip H. Highfill,
Jr. 's piece entitled "Performers and Performing." This essay is not
specifically developed in chronological form either but that does not
detract from its effectiveness. Here, a categorical approach seems to
work. In any event, the essay is most readable and filled with some
solid generalizations as well as a host of specific facts about the actor's life and art. It may be because actors seem to lead lives of a
more precarious nature than many of their other theatrical colleagues
that most readers will find this section so satisfying. Actors in the
eighteenth century were an enterprising lot to say the least. Just read
the brief biographies of Elizabeth Farren and Dorothy Jordan as
proof.
The remainder of the volume is useful. All of the authors are established theatrical scholars--of the twelve, nine are professors of English, two are professors of Theatre/Drama and one is a professor of
Music-and they are very familiar with their territories and material.
As a result, some of the writing is dull and/or turgid or, in a couple of
cases, downright condescending. This is not to imply, however, that
what is discussed is without value. I just wish the several writers could
forget that they are academics and bring some theatrical life to their
theatrical subject matter.
The book is recommended to the student and the teacher alike.
Much of our current theatre practice has its roots in this rather extensive historical epoch of the English stage. It will reveal as much to the
general reader as to the specialist researcher.
Tom Watson

University of Delaware

(continued on p. 42 .. .)
USITT /Spring, 1981

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