State of the Nation - Michael Billington

Towards the end of this history of post-war British theatre, Billington states that "more than any other medium, (theatre) is a vehicle of moral enquiry". Really? Well, this book makes a decent case for it, because it looks at the stage very much in it's social and political context. Billington is the main critic for the Guardian and his political sensibility is what you might expect, but this doesn't take anything away from his overview.

I was particularly interested in the early histories of the NT, the RSC and the Royal Court. In my theatre-going life these three have been well established pillars of the scene, so reading about their early days as radical upstarts was fascinating.

The book also left me frustrated that I will never get to see so many of the legendary performers of the likes of Gielgud, Richardson, Olivier, Littlewood, the Berlin ensemble and so on. Oh well, perhaps I should get myself out to more theatre here in Sydney so as not to miss the next big thing.