{"product_id":"9780472027767","title":"Great Lengths: Seven Works of Marathon Theater","description":" \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e We know that size matters in many areas of human endeavor, but what about works of the imagination? Why do some dramatic creations extend to five hours or more, and how does their extreme length help them accomplish extraordinarily ambitious aims? In Great Lengths, theater critic and scholar Jonathan Kalb addresses these and other questions through a close look at seven internationally prominent theater productions, including Tony Kushner's \u003ci\u003eAngels in America\u003c\/i\u003e, Robert Wilson's \u003ci\u003eEinstein on the Beach\u003c\/i\u003e, the Royal Shakespeare Company's \u003ci\u003eNicholas Nickleby\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \"durational works\" of the British experimental company Forced Entertainment. This is a book about extreme length, monumental scope, and intensive immersion in the theater in general, written by a passionate spectator reflecting on selected pinnacles of his theatergoing over thirty years.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The book's examples, deliberately chosen for their diversity, range from adapted novels and epics, to dramatic chronicles with macrohistorical and macropolitical implications, to stagings of super-size classic plays, to \"postdramatic\" works that negotiate the border between life and art. Kalb reconstructs each of the works, re-creating the experience of seeing it while at the same time explaining how it maintained attention and interest over so many hours, and then expanding the scope to embrace a wider view and ask broader questions. The discussion of \u003ci\u003eNicholas Nickleby\u003c\/i\u003e, for example, considers melodrama as a basic tool of theatrical communication, and the section on Peter Brook's \u003ci\u003eThe Mahabharata\u003c\/i\u003e explores the ethical problems surrounding theatrical exoticism. The chapter on \u003ci\u003eEinstein on the Beach\u003c\/i\u003e grows into a reflection on the media-age status of the much-debated \u003ci\u003eGesamtkunstwerk\u003c\/i\u003e (or \"total artwork\") and a reassessment of the long avant-gardist tradition of challenging the primacy of rational language in theater. The essay on Peter Stein's \u003ci\u003eFaust I + II\u003c\/i\u003e becomes a reflection on the interpretive role of theater directors and the theatrical viability of antitheatrical closet drama. Great Lengths thus offers a remarkable panorama of the surprisingly broad field of contemporary marathon theater—an art form that diverse audiences of savvy, screen-weaned spectators continue to seek out, for the increasingly rare experiences of awe, transcendence, and sustained immersion that it provides.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Great Lengths will appeal to general readers as well as theater specialists. It situates the chosen productions in various historical and critical contexts and engages with the many lively scholarly debates that have swirled around them. At the same time, it uses the productions as springboards for wide-ranging reflections on the basic purpose and enduring power of theater in an attention-challenged, media-saturated era.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Michigan Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47172512121072,"sku":"9780472027767","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780472027767_p0.jpg?v=1763707404","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780472027767","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}