| In 1986, the English director Peter Brook mounted a production in Paris of The Mahabharata, an Indian story cycle, using an acting company drawn from England, Germany, Poland, India, Italy, Upper Volta, the United States, France, Japan, Lebanon and Gabon. During the same period a Japanese film Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa, was released worldwide; it was based on plays by Shakespeare, especially King Lear. These two examples show that, like sport, theatre has become an international activity. |
| Until the twentieth century, most countries developed local, regional and national traditions of theatre. Theatre history books are therefore usually divided into chapters describing developments at various times in different countries, such as Ancient Greece and the Italian Renaissance. But today it is more useful to consider together aspects of theatre from different historical and geographic areas. Instead of dividing chapters according to history and geography, this book examines different elements in the art of theatre. |
| The art of theatre involves people speaking and moving, often very much as they do in ordinary life. For that reason it is not easy to define exactly which activities are theatre and which are not. In the playground, street or garden, we see children playing pretend games, sometimes dressing up to add to the fun. We may have noticed adults changing their behaviour to suit different situations (a teacher behaving differently when a more senior teacher is present, or a parent who looks and acts differently at home and at work). They are adopting roles to suit the various situations in life in which they find themselves. Sometimes whole groups dress |
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