ROBERT TANITCH’S ROUND-UP OF BOOKS No 10
THE 101 GREATEST PLAYS by Michael Billington. (Guardian and Faber & Faber £18.99). “Eyebrows will doubtless be raised about my final selection, the omissions even more than the inclusions,”says Billington, The Guardian’s theatre critic. Can you guess which Shakespeare and which Beckett he has left out? He brings a formidable knowledge and love of theatre to his choice. The essays are always extremely readable. It’s a great book for theatre lovers and an indispensable book for theatre practitioners and students.
JOY RIDE Lives of the Theatricals by John Lahr (Bloomsbury £30) is the best of his New York profiles and reviews. Lahr’s astute coverage of American plays by Arthur Miller, August Wilson, David Mamet, Clifford Odets, Neil LaBute, Sam Shepard (to name but a few) make for a good read.
PERFORMING KING LEAR Gielgud to Russell Beale by Jonathan Croall (Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare £16.99). Charles Lamb said King Lear was unactable. Actually the play is very actable but not easy to act and stage. Here is a very useful account of the actors who have played Lear. It will appeal to any student and theatregoer who is interested in theatre history and performance. If I were asked which was the best Lear I had seen I think I would say Trevor Nunn’s production with Eric Porter for the RSC and am therefore surprised to hear that Porter (who was magnificent) wasn’t happy with the production.
EDWARD BOND: The Playwright Speaks (Bloomsbury Methuen £16.99). David Tuaillion questions the author who made his name with the notorious Saved. Bond is one of the key figures in British theatre, but not the easiest for English audiences to appreciate and therefore liable to be ignored or empty theatres. Even the commercial The Sea can go under. He is probably better known abroad and in France especially where The War Plays were a great success in Avignon.
THE TIME TRAVELLER’S GUIDE TO BRITISH THEATRE by Alexs Sierz and Lia Ghilardi (Oberon £12.99) covers the first Four Hundred Years from Elizabethan times to the present day. The two critics who carry their knowledge with the lightest of touches offer a quick, easy, jaunty and gossipy ride through the centuries. Do you know what the longest running British play is?
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