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Product Description
Product Description
There is no-one else in theatre who takes this position There is a lack of books on serious theatre theory Written in a particularly accessible form.
About the Author
Howard Barker is a dramatist of international standing. His plays hold an increasingly significant place in the world repertoire
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3 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Brilliant, Pretentious, Searing, and Self-Loving
9 July 1998
Format:Paperback
Nobody does it like Howard Barker. One of the fiercest, funniest, most provocative playwrights the English language has ever known, he nonetheless remains little more than obscure in the U.S. This collection of essays are his thoughts on theatre and his own work. Firmly Nietzschean in his thought, Barker gleefully and convincingly rips conventioanl liberal and conserative pieties to shreds. And he exposes the moral and artistic bankruptcy of our current, naturalistic theatre. Barker is convinced he's oppressed (poor baby, he's been scorned by the National Theatre, relegated to those backwaters, the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Royal Court, among others) and that he's a genius. But don't take his word for it. Do yourself and those around you who love theatre a favor and read his plays, starting with his Collected Plays, Volume 1. I started reading Barker eight years ago, and I'm still blown away each time.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
by the author of "The Dream of the Decade"
9 Mar 2006
Format:Paperback
The controversiality, intelligence and sparkling clarity of Howard Barker's Arguments For A Theatre is startling. His is a theatre of responsible surrealism, that Art should not be digestible but rather act as 'an irritant in consciousness, like the grain of sand in the oysters gut.' This short book begins with the assumption that as we live the extinction of 'official socialism,' the opposition must take root in art. It ends with the observation that the greatest plays wound rather than reward, that in a world run by a necessity for its moral and emotional survival, it will endure the wound as a man drawn from a swamp endures the pain of the rope.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Thought-provoking, considered and entirely engrossing
7 Oct 2002
Format:Paperback
For a playwright who has built a career on being controversial and elusive, this collection of essays and fragments is surprisingly articulate. While it's occasionally difficult to distinguish between Barker's moments of self-deprecation and self-promotion, what's easier to recognise is that all of these pieces are thought-provoking, considered and entirely engrossing. Barker is particularly insightful on the reception of his own work by a culture which simply does not know what to do with it. "The cult of accessibility and the Theatre of Obscurity" discredits the notions of 'accessibility' and 'obscurity', and provides 'a plan for the fortification of an imaginative work' which goes a long way towards explaining why Barker writes the things he does. Similarly, "On language in drama" explains his strategic use of 'obscene' language in his plays and why it works. Interspersed with such argumentative tracts are many smaller but no less impressive observations on the nature of performance. "The anatomy of a sob" recounts what Barker considers a key moment in Ian McDiarmid's career. "On watching a performance by life prisoners" succinctly describes the liberating power of a performance which trusts the text. Love or hate Barker's work, this is a book worth reading. If nothing else, it will have you thinking about drama and questioning your own assumptions - not just about Barker's work, but about theatre and our culture in general. That's never a bad thing.
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