The Theatre of Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson, the leading American avant-garde theatre director, revolutionised the stage by making visual communication more important than words. His productions cut across the boundaries that traditionally have defined theatre, dance, opera and the visual arts to create a total work of art. This book, the first comprehensive study of Wilson, traces the evolution of the director’s astonishing career as well as his complex relationship to language and his visual rhetoric. It explains how he renovated the stage and describes in detail major productions such as: Deafman Glance, Einstein on the Beach, and the Civil Wars. Arthur Holmberg’s numerous personal interviews and first-hand observations of Wilson’s creative process, provide an intimate, behind-the-scenes view of one of our most original directors. Photographs and sketches from Wilson’s private collection are included, along with a chronology of his work.

• First comprehensive study of a major and active director both in America and Europe, with recent productions in the UK as well – very well known in the business • The author has worked closely with Wilson as dramaturg on various productions • As an academic and journalist for, among others, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and International Herald Tribune, the author stylishly combines academic analysis with highly readable prose • Contains valuable photos and sketches from Wilson’s private collection • Contains interviews with Wilson’s major collaborators • Interdisciplinary approach draws on literary theory, linguistics, semiotics, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, architecture, dance and painting • Examines Wilson’s press reception

1. Contextualising Wilson: from semiotics to semantics; 2. The cracked kettle; 3. Alchemy of the eye; 4. The deep surface; 5. The dream work 6. The valley of the shadow: trauma and transcendence; 7. The revolution continues.

‘Holmberg’s special achievement lies in his acute attention not only to the aesthetic components of Wilson’s work, but also to its aesthetic principles … The book is organised according to clusters of ideas which with what feels like the help of a good editor, pulls together the prodigious amount of material Wilson has generated. Above all, it shows anyone who wishes to discover or rediscover Wilson just how marvellous he really is.’ New Theatre Quarterly