Mass Theatre in Inter-War Europe
Subtitle: Flanders and the Netherlands in an International Perspective
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 160
ISBN-13: 9789058679925
Subjects: Community theater; Theater, europe
Description: In many European countries mass theatre was a widespread expression of community art which became increasingly popular shortly before the First World War. From Max Reinhardt's lavish open-air spectacles to socialist workers ; Laienspiel (lay theatre), theatre visionaries focused on ever larger groups for entertainment as well as political agitation. Despite wide research on the Soviet and German cases, examples from the Low Countries have hardly been examined. However, mass plays in Flanders and the Netherlands had a distinctive character, displaying an ideological heterogeneity not seen elsewhere. This book studies this peculiar phenomenon of the Low Countries in its European context and sheds light on the broader framework of mass movements in the inter-war period.