Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-16T09:33:45.099Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Tradition, Style and the Theatre To-day

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2007

Get access

Summary

Tradition, according to the dictionary, is “the handing down of customs, opinion or doctrines from ancestors to posterity, from the past to the present, by oral communication: an opinion, custom or doctrine thus handed down: principles or accumulated experiences of earlier generations handed on to others”.

It is often said that the English stage has none of the great tradition of acting which has given dignity and substance to the theatres of France, Germany and Russia in their finest days. The National Theatre, we are told, will create a similar tradition in England, a permanent company for acting classic plays with style. Style (I read again in my dictionary) is “the general formal characteristics of any fine art”. A broad generalization, surely, and not a particularly illuminating definition. What exactly is style in acting and stage production? Does it mean the correct wearing of costume, appropriate deportment and the nice conduct of a clouded cane? Does it mean correct interpretation of the text without extravagance or eccentricity, an elegant sense of period, and beautiful (but unself-conscious) speaking, by a balanced and versatile company of actors, used to working together, flexible instruments under the hand of an inspired director? Such were the theatres of Stanislavsky in Russia, of Copeau and, afterwards, the Compagnie des Quinze in France, and, during certain years of Reinhardt’s supremacy, in Germany.

Type
Chapter
Information
Shakespeare Survey , pp. 101 - 108
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1951

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×