Railway Travel in Modern Theatre

Kyle Gillette is an assistant professor of theatre at Trinity University in San Antonio. He has published several articles in journals of theatre history, dramatic literature, and performance theory, including Modern Drama, Performance Research, Comparative Drama, the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, and others. He lives in San Antonio.

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments ix

Preface 1

Introduction: Theatre and Locomotion 5

Part I: Upholstered Realism and the Great Futurist Railroad 21

One. The Upholstered Realism of Henrik Ibsen 26

Two. F.T. Marinetti’s “Great Futurist Railroad” 46

Part II: Loco Motion: Railway Perception, Relativity and the Stage 61

Three. Stanisław Witkiewicz’s The Crazy Locomotive 65

Four. Staging Relativity: Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach 79

Part III: History, the Railroad and Political Theatre 99

Five. The Locomotive Technology of Epic Theatre: Erwin Piscator’s Adventures of the Good Soldier Schwejk 104

Six. Locomotion After Auschwitz: Armand Gatti’s Seven Possibilities for Train 713 Departing from Auschwitz 123

Part IV: Locomotive Social Space on the American Stage 141

Seven. The American Train of Thought: Thornton Wilder’s Pullman Car Hiawatha 146

Eight. “In the flying underbelly of the city”: Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman 169

Afterword: End of the Line? 197

Notes 203

Bibliography 211

Index 217