Overview

One evening in 1934, on the River Arno in Florence, an air squadron, an infantry, a cavalry brigade, fifty trucks, four field and machine gun batteries, ten field radio stations, and six photoelectric units presented a piece of theatre. One of eleven extraordinary essays in Theatre and War describes this mass spectacle in which two thousand amateur actors performed before an audience of twenty thousand. The authors of this volume assess the function of theatre in times of world crisis, exploring themes of Fascist aesthetic propaganda in Italy and Germany, of theatre re-education programmes in the Gulag's of Russia, of cultural 'sustenance' for the troops at the front and interned German refugees in the UK, and cabaret shows as a currency for survival in Jewish concentration camps.

Of interest to students of cultural studies, theatre studies and European history, as well as to the general reader fascinated by this little-known aspect of the European scene during the 1930s and 1940s, this book includes a wide range of diverse essays telling many interesting stories. I was particularly fascinated by George W. Brandt's first-hand account of his theatrical activities as a German internee in Britain during the war, and Alexander Solzhenityn's tale, excerpted from his famous 'The Gulag Archipelago', of amateur theatricals in Stalin's labour-camps.