An Indra's Web. The Age of Appia, Craig, Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Copeau, Artaud

To what extent is theatre a part of our culture? For centuries, theatre professionals inhabited a society apart. The twentieth century changed this but perhaps not in the way we have always thought it did. This book is about the theatre-makers who were chosen as models in the early twentieth century, as well as about their spectators. Although they never coalesced into a movement, the theatre masters created a web that was instrumental to a unique transformation. This radical change was more than an aesthetic revolution or a completely new way of creating performances, and we are still grappling with its meaning. An Indra’s Web looks at this transformation from a new perspective, subverting the accepted hierarchy of arguments, and describes it in a way that both theatre experts and general readers can benefit from. It does this by drawing upon examples from novels, performances, journals, biographies, events, wars and revolutions. An Indra’s Web presents a history that cuts across many subjects, with one foot in theatre and the other in the outside world.