Volume 1, Number 5 · October 31, 1963
Metacritic
By Nicola Chiaromonte
Metatheatre
by Lionel Abel
Hill & Wang, 146 pp., $3.95
We can over-act everywhere but in the theater. On the stage the playwright is forced to show what makes human actions necessary (as in the universe of Aeschylus) and what makes them random (as in the world of Samuel Beckett). But in the real world we can pretend as much as we wish. For we can attribute necessity to whatever suits us: to our self-interest, or to an idea we do not believe in, or to a passion we do not suffer, and act out the play that develops.
Review, 1365 words
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