Conrad’s Drama: Contemporary Reviews and Observations ed. by John G. Peters

Abstract

Reviewed by: Conrad’s Drama: Contemporary Reviews and Observations ed. by John G. Peters Agnieszka Adamowicz-Pośpiech (bio) Conrad’s Drama: Contemporary Reviews and Observations. Edited by John G. Peters. Leiden and Boston: Brill Rodopi, 2019; xxxii + 483 pp. ISBN: 9799004399099. The indispensable “Conrad Studies” series from Brill Rodopi has become one of two key publishing sources for Conradians, the other being Cambridge University Press. Now has arrived the eleventh volume of the series entitled Conrad’s Drama, edited by John G. Peters. The name of the editor needs no introduction. Suffice it to say that he has produced such invaluable compendia [End Page 117] as Joseph Conrad’s Critical Reception and The Cambridge Introduction to Joseph Conrad, among others. At the start of the book, Peters notes that it is “meant as companion to Joseph Conrad: The Contemporary Reviews” (xxvii) for which he edited the second volume. Indeed, Conrad’s Drama is a supplement to this series but first and foremost it is the continuation of the pioneering research in the field of Conrad’s playwriting and its reception carried out by Richard Hand and published as Victory: The Play and Reviews (2009). Hand’s monograph comprises annotated contemporary reviews, the censor’s report, and production photographs, and was published as the fourth volume of Rodopi’s Conrad Studies series. The present volume is clearly organized according to publication or performance of the play and, within these divisions, by geography, including United Kingdom, United States, and elsewhere (and indeed we do get reviews from all over the world, except Poland, which I shall discuss later). It also provides several production photographs. One point that needs to be clarified at the outset is the qualifier “contemporary,” which for the editor posed “a vexed problem” (xxvii). Contrary to The Contemporary Reviews series, Peters adopted a broader understanding of the word which permitted him to include later reviews and notices. It seems a wise decision since the readers receive an almost complete compilation of all the reviews published as late as 1935. What is more, even later performances and their reviews (up to 2003) are listed in an appendix (426–37) to guide scholars interested in later reception. Unlike the Cambridge series, Peters minutely annotated the reviews, providing extensive explanatory notes clarifying the names of the actors/actresses, theater directors and producers, playwrights, novelists, and critics as well as numerous titles of books, plays, magazines, etc. While hardly anyone today knows who Edward William Betts or Edmonia Nolley were, the explanation of such names as Chekhov, Ibsen, or Strindberg comes as a surprise. Similarly, explicating such rudimentary drama terms as the Aristotelian unities or a well-made play seems unnecessary. Yet the majority of the notes attest to the impeccable scholarship of Peters and open a window for the readers through which they can observe and fully understand the theatrical, literary, and critical contexts of Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century. The book compiles the reviews and notices of stage and radio performances and publications of three plays: One Day More, The Secret Agent, and Laughing Anne. Moreover, there are reviews referring to Conrad’s translation of Winawer’s drama The Book of Job. The volume’s chapter-headings provide a clear indication of the subject covered, e.g.: One Day More: BBC Radio Production 1929; [End Page 118] The Secret Agent: Benrimo and Associates (London) 1922; Laughing Anne & One Day More: John Castle 1924, Doubleday 1925. The Introduction opens with a rather baffling statement that Conrad as a dramatist “attracted only modest attention from scholars inspiring only a handful of articles and one monograph” (xxx), which, to my mind, is not the case and can be easily contradicted by the bibliography provided at the end of the volume. Since 2000, we can observe a steady growth of interest in Conrad’s plays, starting with Hand’s texts (“Conrad and The Reviewers” [2001], “Producing Laughing Anne” [2002], “Conrad’s Drama in a World Theatrical Context” [2005], among others), his groundbreaking monograph The Theatre of Joseph Conrad (2005), followed by Conrad’s Victory, and the co-edited collection of essays Joseph Conrad and the Performing Arts (2009); as well as...