No kidding!
Subtitle: clown as protagonist in twentieth-century theater
By: Donald McManus.
Publisher: University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Newark; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 190
Subjects: European drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Clowns in literature.
Description: "No Kidding! Clown as Protagonist in Twentieth-Century Theater examines the way clown was transformed into a serious character in twentieth-century theater. Modernist theater practitioners recognized that clown's approach to performance is profoundly different from other modes of theatrical representation. The paradox of clown, a traditionally marginal, comic character thrust into center stage as the focus of the agon, provided a stimulating new way to renovate tragedy. Experiments with clown by Jean Cocteau, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, Giorgio Strehler, Dario Fo, and Roberto Benigni are examined as a means of exploring how and why clown became, in contemporary theater and film, a character from whom audiences expect philosophizing, angst, or political criticism as much as physical comedy and fractured language."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-183) and index.