Introduction

The names of the major theatre innovators of the twentieth century that spring to mind, Stanislaysky, Appia, Craig, Meyerhold, Piscator, Brecht, Artaud, Grotowski, Brook, are significantly those who have set down their ideas about theatre on paper and have left a substantial body of writing to posterity. When in Max Reinhardt's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1905 the lights went up on a slowly revolving woodland scene, the audience witnessed more than the revolutions of a stage set; they were seeing the beginnings of a revolution in theatre itself. That this revolution should occur in Germany is in part explained by the lack of any strong national dramatic tradition in that country. Moreover, the Expressionist revolution in the theatre was not only of significance in itself, it was the prerequisite for the political theatre that was to supersede it.