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'Tynan was unique in that he combined the soul of an artist with the descriptive skill of a journalist. His style, blending voluptuous ease with verbal precision, was also a constant instrument of pleasure' Michael Billington, Guardian'a sentence from him is worth a book from all the rest' Time Out
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Kenneth Tynan was the 20th century's most influential theatre critic. Famous above all for championing the Angry Young Men at the Royal Court and for heralding Brecht, Beckett and Pinter, his writing was itself a 'high-definition performance' - stylish, discerning and scintillatingly witty.
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A Gift for Theater Lovers
18 April 2011
Format:Paperback
This book is mostly a collection of 1-2 page reviews Tynan wrote of live theater events in the 1950's, plus a few longer pieces.
He writes on Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, John Osborne, Brendan Behan, Arthur Miller, Jean Giraudoux, Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Arnold Wesker, Shelagh Delaney, etc, censorship by the Lord Chancellor, the Suez crisis, the *method* acting technique, and, frequently, the need for theatre to speak to the times - a strong belief of his that theatre should talk to people about the world they live in. It should connect, viscerally and honestly, with the audience.
His enthusiasm for John Osborne's Look Back in Anger comes from that place. Osborne showing - "post-war youth as it really is, with special emphasis on the non-U intellgensia who live in bed-sitters and divide the Sunday papers into two groups - 'posh' and 'wet'", made a strong impression on Tynan, who embraced its unrestrained look at post-war England.
It's a fun, entertaining, and enlightening book. Tynan's a great critic. He cares about theatre and he brings erudition and intelligence to every review. I've read much of this book several times. Like Tom Stoppard says in the foreward, you can open the book at any page and find something great.
Here's a sample from his review of Ondine, by Jean Giradoux - "Why, during his lifetime, did we so sorely neglect the author of Ondine (Bristol Old Vic)? If we picture European drama between the wars as a house, Jean Giradoux was the decorator; and he did it up so imposingly that only Shaw, Brecht, Pirandello and O'Casey could live in it without feeling dwarfed. We travel through his plays as through a luminous grotto, glimpsing murals of time-suspending wit and loveliness; and it would be churlish, after such a journey, to complain that the labyrinth seemed shapeless, that there were too many blind alleys, or that every picture did not tell a story..."
If you appreciate theatrical criticism as an art in itself, if you want a glance at what the Post WWII world was like from an English theatrical perspective then you should enjoy this. Highly recommended.
He writes on Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, John Osborne, Brendan Behan, Arthur Miller, Jean Giraudoux, Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Arnold Wesker, Shelagh Delaney, etc, censorship by the Lord Chancellor, the Suez crisis, the *method* acting technique, and, frequently, the need for theatre to speak to the times - a strong belief of his that theatre should talk to people about the world they live in. It should connect, viscerally and honestly, with the audience.
His enthusiasm for John Osborne's Look Back in Anger comes from that place. Osborne showing - "post-war youth as it really is, with special emphasis on the non-U intellgensia who live in bed-sitters and divide the Sunday papers into two groups - 'posh' and 'wet'", made a strong impression on Tynan, who embraced its unrestrained look at post-war England.
It's a fun, entertaining, and enlightening book. Tynan's a great critic. He cares about theatre and he brings erudition and intelligence to every review. I've read much of this book several times. Like Tom Stoppard says in the foreward, you can open the book at any page and find something great.
Here's a sample from his review of Ondine, by Jean Giradoux - "Why, during his lifetime, did we so sorely neglect the author of Ondine (Bristol Old Vic)? If we picture European drama between the wars as a house, Jean Giradoux was the decorator; and he did it up so imposingly that only Shaw, Brecht, Pirandello and O'Casey could live in it without feeling dwarfed. We travel through his plays as through a luminous grotto, glimpsing murals of time-suspending wit and loveliness; and it would be churlish, after such a journey, to complain that the labyrinth seemed shapeless, that there were too many blind alleys, or that every picture did not tell a story..."
If you appreciate theatrical criticism as an art in itself, if you want a glance at what the Post WWII world was like from an English theatrical perspective then you should enjoy this. Highly recommended.
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