Review of Herbert Blau’s Reality Principles: From the Absurd to the Virtual

In his most recent book of collected essays on theatre and performance, the esteemed scholar and theatre director Herbert Blau (who died on 3 May 2013 at age 87) recounts a story from his early days as a director of an actor’s lament with his rehearsed role, “I don’t feel this, I’m not feeling this at all.” To which Blau forcefully replied, “I couldn’t care less what you feel, or don’t, feelings are cheap! I only care what you think. What we’re doing here is thinking, trying to understand”. In a chapter entitled “The Emotional Memory of Directing,” Blau is looking back from a distance of decades onto memories of emotions, always directed toward theatre’s own unique vantage onto thought, its corporeal manifestations, its bodily obligations, and “[...] the ontological fact that the one performing [...] is dying in front of your eyes”.