An Interview with Eric Bentley

Abstract

Eric Bentley, born in England in 1916, is one of the finest drama critics of our times. He served as the Brander Mathews Professor of Dramatic Literature at Columbia University for almost twenty years, and has been a leading commentator on the theatre for nearly a generation. What Is Theatre?, a collection of his reviews for the New Republic in the mid-195f0's, and The Life of the Theatre, a collection of his lectures as Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard in 1960-61, have become basic works for students interested in the theatre. His translations of Brecht's plays pioneered the presentation of Brecht upon the English-speaking stage. Other of Bentley's works include Thirty Years of Treason, a sharp criticism of the House Committee on Un-American Activities; Theatre of War, a collection of drama criticism and social comme7ntary; two recent documentary plays, Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been and The Recantation of Galileo Galilei; the six-volume edition of Modern Theatre; and seven record albums, including Brecht Before the Unamerican Committee, The Songs of Hanns Eisler, Bentley on Biermann, and The Queen of 42nd Street. Eric Bentley began to speak openly as a homosexual in magazine several years ago. One of his letters to that magazine was subsequently amplified into the chapter Men's Liberation in his book Theatre of War (Viking 1972). He also gave one of the first university courses dealing with homosexuality in culture (Queens College, CUNY, 1972). His weekly radio program for PacificaWBAI has featured unusually open discussions with J. Z. Eglinton, Howard Brown, Martin Duberman, and others.