Eric Bentley

On Drama as Literature and Performance

Is a play complete without performance? The question has been answered with equal vehemence in
both the affirmative and the negative. The choice goes by temperamental preference: literary
persons believe in the unaided script; theatrical persons believe in performance. oth are right. !
good play leads a duble e"istence# and is a complete personality in both its lives. $hen a
theatrical person says a play has been misinterpreted in performance# he is certainly implying that a
play is there and has its integrity before the interpeters touch it. as for literary persons# their
concession that a play does have another life as well as that of the boo% is to be found# if nowhere
else# in their dismissal of bits they don&t li%e as merely theatrical. In other words# their position
rally is not that the theatrical dimension doesn&t e"ist but that they wish it didn&t.
'ach group is trying to ma%e a virtue of its onw deformation professionelle. Theatrical
people have their limitations as interpreters of literature. (iterary people have theirs as interpreters
of theater. If we can avoid the blindnesses of both parties# the only real problem lies in
understanding the difference between script)alone and script)as)performed# for any given passage
may have a different import in the two different conte"ts. *inally# one is not forced into any choice
between literature and theater# and to %now Hamlet# or any great play# should be to %now it from
stage and study# both. ! fine performance will never fail to throw light on at least an aspect of the
play# while even the best reading in the study will fall far short of embracing all its aspects.
The question whether one should prefer to read or to see aplay is best answered
pragmatically. If one can read well to oneself# one will hardly prefer to go and see a mediovre
performance. ut# for anyone capable of relishing theater )and that includes more people than %now
it) even though the written script has its own completeness# there is no pleasure to top that of seeing
a dramatic masterpiece masterfully performed. $hat is added means so much in such an immediate#
sensuous way. If plot# characteri+ation and dialogue give body to the theme# and transform thought
into wisdom# and a view into a vision# adequate performance helps them to do so in various ways
but above ll by adding that final and conclusive concretion# the living actor.
*rom 'nactment in The Life of Drama.
In The Bedford Introduction to Literature; pp. ,-.-),--/