The Cambridge Guide to Asian Theatre.(Review)

The Cambridge Guide to Asian Theatre. Edited by James R. Brandon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997; 253 pp; illustrations. $24.95 paper.

An inevitable problem of projects endeavoring to cover broad subjects is that they often promise more than they deliver. The Cambridge Guide to Asian Theatre is 253 pages in length. The Cambridge Guide to African and Caribbean Theatre is a mere six pages longer. But The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre is nearly the size of the other two together: 463 pages. The Cambridge Companion series offers yet a different range of vital statistics: the volume on Brecht is 302 pages, Arthur Miller 277 Eugene O'Neill 256, Medieval English Theatre 372, Ibsen 271, and Greek Tragedy 392. Perhaps these figures have more to do with audience demographics and sales prospects than scholarship, and perhaps I am being naive. But surely …