NATALIE REWA Scenography in Canada: Selected Designers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.249 pp. Illus., index. European cities like Berlin have always made me swoon with theatre-envy--not only because of their hip young audiences, their tradition of rigorous dramaturgy, their international repertoires, and their rich subsidies, but also because of what one finds in their shops and lobbies: a vast array of glamorous books and magazines on theatre's visual aspect, on scenography. We in Canada by comparison publish next to nothing on the subject. If this was ever tolerable, it's been inexcusable for years: Canadian scenography is increasingly visible internationally, and the services of our modern-day Bibiena, Michael Levine, are in demand from London to Paris to New York. Luckily for us, there is at least one exception to the Canadian rule: Natalie Rewa's handsome, lusciously illustrated Scenography in Canada: Selected Designers. This sumptuous book pays magnificent tribute to the stage, lighting, and costume designs of seven Canadian scenographers: Astrid Janson, Susan Benson, Mary Kerr, Jim Plaxton, Michael Levine, Ken MacDonald, and Teresa Przybylski. It does so in the form of 207 superbly printed images drawn from the artists' photo-archives, sketchbooks, maquettes, lighting plots, and costume-boards. Together these images span the quarter-century between Kerr's Stag King (1972) and Plaxton's Life and Times of Brian Mulroney (1999). They document designs undertaken not only for large- and small-scale plays, operas, musicals and ballets, but also for civic ceremonies, expositions, and installations. Rewa has aimed above all to pay homage to the creative processes of these seven scenographers, as well as to exemplify the range and excellence of late-twentieth-century Canadian stage design. The small number of artists represented, and the absence of any French Canadians among them, will make the second of these aims the tougher one to fulfill to every reader's satisfaction. My hope, however, is that Rewa simply isn't finished yet, and that Scenography in Canada will turn out to be the first in a distinguished series. The book's first section is a 106-page portfolio of glossy, well-spaced images, most printed in deeply-saturated colour. What a treat-for theatre educators, what a godsend!-to have at one's fingertips so much visual evidence of the inventiveness of the Canadian theatrical imagination. Because of the way their work was originally documented, some of the artists are arguably better served here than others. For example, Michael Levine's maquettes and sets, all of which include the performer's body as an integral element, communicate their theatricality with an immediacy that can't be matched by the designs of those who photographed their work void of actors or any other markers of human scale. Ken MacDonald's playfully warped proportions and perspectives just cannot be fully appreciated when empty, without any actors' bodies present, and the muscular monuments of Jim Plaxton are sometimes compromised here for the same reason. And while the drawings and paintings of Teresa Przybylski are among the most beautiful images in the book, the shortage of photographic documentation of her work as realized on the stage hampers our ability to gauge her achievement as a scenographer. But there are ravishing and inspiring ideas to be found in each of the designers' portfolios without exception. Section two (p.107-118) provides the images' captions. The show, its director, venue(s), and date(s) are identified, and sometimes the performers as well. Section three (p.119-213) alternates between Rewa's biographical and descriptive essays, and block-quoted statements by the artists themselves. The latter are particularly absorbing, full of juicy details about the genesis of shows and the featured artists' creative processes. For example, we learn of occasions on which the designer's initial idea had to be scrapped-either because the director saw things differently (Susan Benson's Guys and Dolls), for technical reasons (Levine's Onegin), or simply because it was displaced by a better concept (MacDonald's White Biting Dog). …