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late_stranger's review against another edition
5.0
The way that this book was made is how all books about performance art and theatre should be made. The five works represented (but by no means contained) in these pages are done more justice than any play I have ever read has been done by its play-text, including plays which are a hundred times more straightforwardly about the words than these. Frankland's work has never been simple, and is in fact deeply embodied in the location and atmosphere and audience of each performance - the earlier works even more so than Hearty, which I was lucky enough to see in Edinburgh this summer. And yet, the conversational format of the introductions (a word I almost hesitate to use) brought to life the inter-personal reality of making performances, and the detailed but not didactic descriptions of the sets/locations and all other relevant aspects of the chosen productions really brought the pieces to life in a way I've never seen before in a text of a performance.
The physical quality of the book - photos, formatting, paper, etc - was also astounding and makes it a real physical treasure as well as a treasure-trove of history and inspiration.
The physical quality of the book - photos, formatting, paper, etc - was also astounding and makes it a real physical treasure as well as a treasure-trove of history and inspiration.
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