Performing Opposition: Modern Theater and the Scandalized Audience

Modern theater history is punctuated by instances of scandalized audience members disrupting and in some cases suspending the first production of a new play. Such incidents are usually dismissed as riots, as self—evident displays of philistinism. Neil Blackadder's intriguing new study reveals them in fact to be multifaceted conflicts, showing the ways in which these protesters—acting against plays by such notables as Jarry, Synge, and Brecht—creatively devised and enacted resistance through...