Perspective

Perspective is slightly problematic in a book such as this, as it is a collection of interviews, essays, and notes, and as such bears multiple perspectives. However, the primary perspective is that of Jerzy Grotowski, for each section is dedicated to his vision and theory of theatre. Grotowski, at the time of the book's publication, is a well-respected theatre producer and theoretician of the Theatre Laboratory. He combines the philosophical capacity of an academic with the practical knowledge of a working producer of stage productions. He is well-read on previous theatre theoreticians (chiefly Stanislavski, but also Meyerhold, Delsarte, Artaud, and Brecht), and he acknowledges that his own theory has been, in part, shaped by the work of those men. Though he is a producer, he is clearly speaking from outside of the "normal" theatre, the contemporary "rich theatre" that he chides for its indulgences. In advocating a new...