BOOKS
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Fine repertory theaters turn out con summa te actors. Well funded
thea tri cal o rganiza ti ons produce dozen s of new plays every month . And
the acto rs a re p roud o f their p rofess ion , resist the lures of commercial
enterta inment o r a t leas t are abl e to move between film and stage
without vul ga ri zing their craft. Brustein detects a waning of intensity,
a pen chant for redoing the traditional, an excessive allention to style
and technique a t the expense of pass io na te feeling, but if the English
heaven , like all heaven s, suffers from bl andness and tepidity, it is still
mo re livabl e th an the American hell.
Back in Yahoo Land in section III, the culture wa tcher continues
to sound the tocsin , to advise, threa ten , cajole. He offers some persua–
sive suggestion s on how, and how not to , p roduce Shakes pea re. He
condemn s the " profession " for sabotaging its own interests, call s upon
his own students to take up the sacred cause of arti sti c integrity, warn s
aga in st commercial-thea ter Greeks bearing gifts to the nonprofit
thea ters, and asserts that the chi ef danger to the thea ter is no t dimini sh–
ing fin ancial suppo rt. A far mo re dangerous threa t to its surviva l a re
the "celebrities" -po liti cian s, writers, actors, criminals-perfo rming
in the limeli ght o f the dail y scene and crea ting a kind o f " news thea tre"
in whi ch the worst aspects o f the two worlds, Art and Society,
g ruesomely and vul garl y comming le.
Running through Brustein 's ho rta to ry essays, speeches, and re–
views a re a few favorite motifs that ho ld together his jeremi ad . They
might be parti all y subsumed under the fo llowing headings:
Plu ralism:
a plurali sti c culture is one in which " the terribl y fragil e
and vulnerabl e encl ave of high culture" is all owed to develop autono–
mo usly within a majority culture, to go its own way without being
engorged by "careeri sts and pro fiteers." This tortuous autonomy was
vio la ted in the mid-fifti es when the "Arts market" boom disclosed the
commercial po tentialities of high culture and when the mass media
blurred cu ltura l di stincti ons. Intell ectual jo urnals have has tened this
confl a ti on in their quest for a larger readership by "sacrifi cing intell ec–
tual surpri se for the sake of ideo logical consi stency" and by subordi –
n a ting cultural radi ca li sm 's wa r aga in st commercial expl oiters and
defense of artisti c va lue to "polemi cs and politics."
Comm ercia lism'
o ther names for it are " box o ffi ce" and "Madi son
Avenue."
It
makes the avant-garde sa leable, co-opts faddi st and revo lu–
ti onary alike, builds up and des troys litera ry reputa tions in an instant,
and encourages the thea ter to keep up with the " latest social, po liti cal,
and sexual issues."
It
aggrava tes th e di sease affli cting int ell ectuals,
a rti sts, and academi cs "which makes them desire simultaneously to be
