Biographical theatre has attracted little scholarship to date. This is surprising, especially if we consider Canton's suggestion that ‘the literal incorporation of a reference to a historical figure in the body of an actor can be seen as a uniquely theatrical feature, possible in this way only in the physical reality of live performance’ (p. 16, italics in the original). By exploring the interest in theatrical performances based on the lives of real people and the theoretical challenges attached to the study of such work, Biographical Theatre attempts to address the scholarly deficit.
Canton's introduction chronologically explores factors that have influenced the progress of biographical theatre in Britain. Acknowledging famous predecessors such as Shakespeare and Schiller, the author focuses on the development of the form from the abolition of censorship in 1968. Examining such factors as the influence of left-wing theatre and postmodern thought, Biographical Theatre provides a historical overview of the form while examining its dynamic incarnation in contemporary society.
Canton claims that the creation of theatre as cultural practice occurs as a joint invention between performer and spectator. Allowing each equal emphasis, she divides her chapters between examining production and reception. Thus early chapters focus on the analysis of specific performances, while later chapters concentrate on their reception.
Exploring the practice of combining biographical information and theatrical presentation to produce an impression of authenticity, the author adopts Sauter's terms intra- and extra-theatricality, referring to the ‘poles of absolute life-likeness or extra-theatricality . . . and entire artifice or intra-theatricality that does not share any similarities with the worlds in which the spectator lives’ (p. 45). The author then uses this framework to explore different types of biographical theatre, such as the extra-theatrical verbatim production Gladiator Games and the intra-theatrical drama documentary Thatcher – The Musical!
Acknowledging the theoretical shift in the approach to history from modernism to postmodernism, Canton charts the interest in biographical theatre from an ‘empiricist, scientific view of history and life writing towards a new concept that is characterised by increasing self-reflexivity’ (p. 24). She then combines these theoretical and analytical elements to examine the practice of self-reflexivity in the form.
Attempting to introduce a methodology to explore the phenomenological response to biographical material, the author again acknowledges the need to analyse both production and reception, focusing on the development of a functional approach with which to discuss audience feedback in order to ‘overcome the emphasis on the scholar as sole spectator’ (p. 123). The resulting theoretical methodology developed by Canton discourages academic interest in the form based on concepts of fact and fiction alone.
Biographical Theatre is a valuable addition to theatre scholarship, one that addresses the ‘schism between the academy's . . . reluctance to engage with such forms of theatre and their popularity on British stages’ (p. 167) by successfully moulding the two main factors in performance analysis (the theoretical and the phenomenological) to study theatre that examines the lives of real people.
