Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers the balance of tradition and innovation in twentieth-century Japanese performance architecture, while Elain Harwood sets out the various Modernisms of post-war German theatre architecture. It explores the colonisation by avant-garde directors as Peter Brook of redundant buildings and spaces in New York, a theme then developed in a detailed case study by Richard William Hayes. The book recognises the global aspects of theatre architecture. The Prince of Wales famously commented in 1988 that the National Theatre was 'a clever way of building a nuclear power station in the middle of London without anyone objecting'. The book joins a plentiful literature on the history and theory of twentieth-century performance, in which buildings naturally figure, and on the technical and procedural aspects of theatre design and construction.