Theater and Incarnation

Book excerpt: In this lucid and entertaining book, Max Harris offers both a lively introduction to the theater and a sustained meditation on the theatricality of the Incarnation. Arguing that both biblical and dramatic texts should be approached with a theatrical rather than a literary imagination, he offers fresh and scholarly insights into plays as diverse as the medieval "Ordinalia" and Edmond Rostandbs romantic masterpiece "Cyrano de Bergerac," while also probing theatrical theory from Aristotle to Grotowski. At the same time, he renders vividly the comic potential of the gospel narratives and the affirmation of humanity entailed in the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. "Theater and Incarnation" moves provocatively and mischievously between the flesh and blood world of the theater and the Word become flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.