Maria Shevtsova: Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson

London and New York: Routledge, 2007      

ISBN10: 0-415-33880-8 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-33881-6 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-44845-6 (ebk)    
172pp + xiv

Robert Wilson is an American-European director who is also a performer, installation artist, video artist, writer, designer of light and space, and much more besides – a crossover polymath who dissolves both generic and geographical boundaries and is a precursor of globalisation in the arts.  This is the first book to combine:

• Analysis of his main productions, situated in their American and European socio-cultural, political and artistic contexts, including the world of postmodern dance in the USA, the radical art of the Bauhaus and Kandinsky’s colour theory, and the context of cultural policies and government subsidies, notably in France and Germany;
• An exploration of his ‘visual book’, workshop and rehearsal methods, and collaborative procedures, with detail from Wilson’s rehearsals of The Black Rider  and Peer Gynt in Oslo;
• A study of his aesthetic principles and the elements of composition that distinguish his directorial approach, and a detailed analysis of the structure and performance dynamic of his landmark production Einstein on the Beach;
• A series of practical exercises for students and practitioners inspired by and highlighting Wilson’s compositional processes.

Reviews

In this short but lucid study, Maria Shevtsova writes of Wilson's 'love of the long haul,' and persuasively portrays him as a visual artist who works with time. She memorably evokes his use of layered sound, the way he storyboards productions and then lights them in hot, elegant colours; there's a wonderful description of the climactic murder in Woyzeck, where the emotion of a desperate tango is intensified by walls that turn scarlet. Shevtsova is a great guide to the big beasts of contemporary performance - she has also written illuminatingly about Peter Brook, Pina Bausch and the Maly's Lev Dodin - and this study is a splendid addition to the series of Routledge Performance Practitioners.

David Jays, Plays International, August 2007

Maria Shevtsova’s Robert Wilson works in much the same way as the director, and in this concise and readable book she introduces Wilson’s directorial process without reducing it to an all-encompassing and closed interpretation…Shevtsova’s book is a surprisingly comprehensive and clear treatment of the otherwise enigmatic and reticent Wilson.  The work is an excellent source for undergraduate classroom use and for student researchers interested in modern directing practices.

John Warrick, New Theatre Quarterly, 25:1, February 2009