Focusing firmly on performance and leaving other books to cover literary issues, the Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance is an updated and compressed version of the 2003 two-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, and follows the usual Oxford Companion format of gathering a large number of short articles – more than two thousand in this case – by a range of expert contributors. Arranged alphabetically, the book is in between a subject-specific encyclopedia and a dictionary, covering a wide variety of topics from biographies of directors, playwrights, actors and designers to traditions, buildings, organizations, styles and movements.
Editor Dennis Kennedy, reflecting the changing views of what constitutes theatre, states that the book ‘attempts to see theatre and performance as human expressions with large cultural significance’ (p. vii), interestingly including in his definition of performance sport, street theatre, Wild West shows, circus and even animal fights and public executions.
The layout of the book provides ease of research, including a page of notes to the reader. Cross-references are signalled with an asterisk in front of words, and each entry indicates the contributor by the means of the authors’ initials, with a key provided. A fascinating insight into the events that shaped or influenced the world of theatre and performance is provided in a timeline by Diane DeVore, which follows the main entries and puts theatre and performance events side by side with historical and cultural events. Finally, following the timeline, there is an extensive further-reading section and a list of Web resources.
The scope of the book is impressive, covering more solemn topics such as Shakespeare and Tragedy, but also Lionel Bart, Marie Tempest, the Marx Brothers, contemporary practitioners and genres such as Conor McPherson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Calixto Bieito, the Wooster Group and Multimedia Performance; historic theatres such as Haymarket Theatre Royal and Drury Lane; and even stage parts of theatres, as for example cyclorama. Inevitably some of the choices are arbitrary. Simon Russell Beale, Janet Suzman, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith and Maureen Lipman receive entries, but Alex Jennings, Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter do not. Neither do leading provincial production houses such as Crucible Sheffield, West Yorkshire Playhouse or the Manchester Royal Exchange Group. Although this selection looks arbitrary, Professor Kennedy points out in the Preface that ‘it has been impossible to include all the material that might be desirable to cover’ (p. vii).
On balance, The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance is a book best appreciated for what it comprises rather than criticized for what it leaves out. As a reference book, the Companions give readers a quick briefing on almost any theatrical performance subject, which will prove to be incredibly useful for academics, students, critics and other practitioners wishing to gain a foretaste of subjects which may lead to more in-depth study elsewhere.
