Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1975 - 36

BOOK REVIEWS

TONY COURTADE

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH
PLAYHOUSE
by Richard Leacroft
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1973.
354 pp., illus.
ISBN 0-8014-0750-8
$29.50
Richard Leacroft's The Development Of The
English Playhouse promises to be a rare book even
from the first and briefest acquaintance: it is the
product of seven years' labour by an already
distinguished scholar, architect and stage designer.
Physically, it is both substantial and handsomely laid
out. It is, further, copiously illustrated not only with
contemporary drawings, engravings and photographs, but also by the author's own meticulously
detailed exploded-view isometric drawings of more
than thirty British theatre buildings which date from
the Tudor era to the end of the nineteenth century.
There is every indication, even on the surface,
that this is a definitive study of British theatre
architecture and one does not venture far into the
text before this suspicion is confirmed. Leacroft's
attention to the details of scholarship in justifying his
convictions is equally as thorough-going and complete as his projecting these findings into graphic
form. Leacroft's, moreover, is the voice of a quietly
confident authority whose argument makes its way
easily from specific references within dramatic
works, to conjectures about staging practices, to
points of architectural finesse, and back again to a
continuing dialogue with historically authenticated
sources of description.
The Development Of The English Playhouse
clearly has enormous value as perhaps the most
comprehensive investigation into the progress of
British theatre architecture available. But it is an
equally important work because of the intense light
which its argument continually sheds on the rise and
decline of scenic investiture in the British theatre
right from its beginnings in the late medieval period
to modern times. In fact, as he reaches the two-thirds
point in his study, Leacroft begins to turn the focus
of his attention somewhat from a verification of the
architectural format toward an increased consideration for the demands placed on the building by the
accomodation of scene shifting machinery, the metamorphosis of the proscenium form and the greater
need for a building which would be safe for public
assembly.

Typically Leacroft's notes on his written work, on
the illustrations and the bibliography, all of which

comprise the closing pages of the book, are as
scrupulously exact as the body of the work itself. The
Development Of The English Playhouse is a book
wh ich no serious student of the theatre can afford to
neg lect and it belongs on h is bookshelf alongside
Bieber, Baur-Heinhold, Nicoll and their like.
Brian Arnott

DOCUMENTS OF AMERICAN THEATRE
HISTORY, VOL. I: FAMOUS AMERICAN
PLAYHOUSES, 1716-1899.
DOCUMENTS OF AMERICAN THEATRE
HISTORY, VOL. II: FAMOUS AMERICAN
PLAYHOUSES, 1900-1971.
by William C. Young
The American Library Association; 1973
ISBN 0-8389-0136-0
$50 for the set
The issuance of William C. Young's Documents of
American Theatre History series should spell the
maturation of the study of the subject. This comment
is not intended as a diminution of the earlier efforts
of a long series of distinguished and excellent
teachers and researchers of American Theatre H istory. It is meant rather as signal recognition of the
efforts of these scholars wh ich has lead to an end
product in the Young work. Documents of American
Theatre History as a whole has been conceived on a
monumental scale approaching that of the Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo, but rather than take on the
Quixotic task of conceptualizing the whole of world
theatre history, as only Ital ian Theatre Historians
with their deep sense of the operatically melodramatic might attempt, Young has organized the study to
treat both the logical segments and the overall
concepts which make up the totality of our theatre
history. The major divisions of the study include
playhouses, directors, actors, designers, playwrights,
and major events. As setting and background for the
rest of the work, the issuance of the first two volumes
on the American playhouses seems appropriate.
Young deals with the theatres of infant America in
the first section of volume I. Documents dealing with
theatrical production in early Colonial America are
few and far between; they are ill-recorded, confusing, and far from capable of giving a comprehensive
idea of those early productions. Documentation
revealing some insight into the facilities for these
early productions is even more scarce. Any attempt
to report these humble beginnings, and to discuss
locations, buildings, and stages for these first
performances is a difficult chore, indeed. Young

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

SPRING. 1975

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1975