THEATRE

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 3

THEATRE

Method or Madness. By Robert Lewis. Heinemann. 166 [ip. This Informal but stimulating book on play production should be read by all who are interested in the theatre, whether they are actors or producers or just the people in the audience. Mr Lewis’s book is based on the script of eight lectures given to a class of more than 700 actors gathered together in the Playhouse Theatre in New York three years ago. All the natural impromptu wit of Mr Lewis’s highly self-conscious style seems to have been ' preserved. For instance, he tells of an erratic actor who declinpd to be corrected by his producer any more. “Look,' it’s a long run, and I just have to give one bad performance a week,” Mr Lewis comments. “Well! That was the one he knew of.” As the author walked on the stage for his final talk he was received with an especially gratifying round of applause," which prompted him to say, “There’s nothing people like more than a closing!” Of course, the method emphasised in the title of the book is the celebrated Stanislavski Method, as expounded at length in “An Actor Prepares” and “Building a Character.” But Mr Lewis protests he is not teaching the Method. “I don’t want anyone hearing these talks to go out and say they studied the Method with Bobby Lewis. And what's worse, then go and open a school!” All he is offering is a brief commentary on Stanislavski’s main principles. An actor would need to know something more of the master's practice; but anyone in a receptive frame of mind could gain knowledge here that would help him to appreciate good acting and to discriminate against what is false and pretentious.