James Reynolds is a Lecturer in Drama at Kingston University, London, UK. He has also taught at Queen Mary, University of London, and Rose Bruford College. Dr Andy W. Smith is the Associate Head of the School of Media at the University of South Wales, UK. His doctoral thesis is a study of Howard Barker and his theatre company The Wrestling School. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on the theatre of Howard Barker, post-war British drama, horror cinema and the Gothic in popular culture.

The work of British playwright, director, painter, and photographer Howard Barker (b. 1946) is not well known in the US, although this eclectic but richly rewarding volume makes apparent it should be. Indeed, Barker's drama and the loosely affiliated group dedicated to producing it since 1986, the Wrestling School, are arguably marginal even in their native Britain. For this one can blame both Barker’s eccentric, polyphonous, resistant, emphatically anti-naturalistic texts (which, as the editors are quick to assure the reader, are ‘different’ rather than difficult) and his uncompromising dedication to an alternative discipline of theater, which he has unfolded in a series of commentaries dedicated to the ‘theatre of catastrophe.’ Here, in an interview published as ‘On Discipline,’ Barker remarks: ‘My intense concern is that the experience of the play is not diluted by weak practices.’ The book comprises three complementary sections: ‘Howard Barker and the Wrestling School’ offers essays and interviews with Barker and some of the regular actors and directors associated with the Wrestling School over three decades; ‘Readings/Inversions’ provides scholarly considerations of Barker’s work in relation to ‘new writing,’ spirituality, and visuality; and ‘Other Barkers’ offers essays scanning particular productions and approaches. Reynolds and Smith make a strong case for (re)discovering Barker’s important oeuvre. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

• AcknowledgmentsList of Photographic PlatesNotes on ContributorsIntroduction - James Reynolds and Andy W. Smith Part One: Howard Barker and The Wrestling SchoolIntroduction to Part One 1. A Company and its Origins - James Reynolds in conversation with Kenny Ireland2. From the Actor, to the Actor - Nicholas Le Prevost, Philip Franks, James Clyde, Sean O'Callaghan, Jules Melvin, Victoria Wicks and Suzy Cooper3. Directing Slowly - Hanna Berrigan4. Amplifying Catastrophe - Ace McCarron 5. On Discipline - James Reynolds in conversation with Howard Barker Part Two: Readings/Inversions Introduction to Part Two6. ‘To experience a thing as beautiful’: the Photographic Practice of Howard Barker - Andy W. Smith 7. Vintage Barker: New Writing in Old Bottles - James Hudson 8. Howard Barker and the Return of Religion - Peter A. Groves 9. Going Underground - James Reynolds Part Three: Other BarkersIntroduction to Part Three10. Acting Barker - Hanna Berrigan in conversation with Fiona Shaw11. Staging Barker in America - Andy W. Smith in conversation with Cheryl Faraone and Richard Romagnoli12. Barker from a Viewpoint: Staging Ursula: Fear of the Estuary - Sarah Crews13. Staging Barker at Scotland's Conservatoire - Mark Brown in conversation with Hugh Hodgart14. ‘A Gallery Of Images’: from the Aberystwyth Students - David Ian RabeyEndnotes Index

James Reynolds is a Lecturer in Drama at Kingston University, London, UK. He has also taught at Queen Mary, University of London, and Rose Bruford College. Dr Andy W. Smith is the Associate Head of the School of Media at the University of South Wales, UK. His doctoral thesis is a study of Howard Barker and his theatre company The Wrestling School. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on the theatre of Howard Barker, post-war British drama, horror cinema and the Gothic in popular culture.

The work of British playwright, director, painter, and photographer Howard Barker (b. 1946) is not well known in the US, although this eclectic but richly rewarding volume makes apparent it should be. Indeed, Barker's drama and the loosely affiliated group dedicated to producing it since 1986, the Wrestling School, are arguably marginal even in their native Britain. For this one can blame both Barker’s eccentric, polyphonous, resistant, emphatically anti-naturalistic texts (which, as the editors are quick to assure the reader, are ‘different’ rather than difficult) and his uncompromising dedication to an alternative discipline of theater, which he has unfolded in a series of commentaries dedicated to the ‘theatre of catastrophe.’ Here, in an interview published as ‘On Discipline,’ Barker remarks: ‘My intense concern is that the experience of the play is not diluted by weak practices.’ The book comprises three complementary sections: ‘Howard Barker and the Wrestling School’ offers essays and interviews with Barker and some of the regular actors and directors associated with the Wrestling School over three decades; ‘Readings/Inversions’ provides scholarly considerations of Barker’s work in relation to ‘new writing,’ spirituality, and visuality; and ‘Other Barkers’ offers essays scanning particular productions and approaches. Reynolds and Smith make a strong case for (re)discovering Barker’s important oeuvre. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

• AcknowledgmentsList of Photographic PlatesNotes on ContributorsIntroduction - James Reynolds and Andy W. Smith Part One: Howard Barker and The Wrestling SchoolIntroduction to Part One 1. A Company and its Origins - James Reynolds in conversation with Kenny Ireland2. From the Actor, to the Actor - Nicholas Le Prevost, Philip Franks, James Clyde, Sean O'Callaghan, Jules Melvin, Victoria Wicks and Suzy Cooper3. Directing Slowly - Hanna Berrigan4. Amplifying Catastrophe - Ace McCarron 5. On Discipline - James Reynolds in conversation with Howard Barker Part Two: Readings/Inversions Introduction to Part Two6. ‘To experience a thing as beautiful’: the Photographic Practice of Howard Barker - Andy W. Smith 7. Vintage Barker: New Writing in Old Bottles - James Hudson 8. Howard Barker and the Return of Religion - Peter A. Groves 9. Going Underground - James Reynolds Part Three: Other BarkersIntroduction to Part Three10. Acting Barker - Hanna Berrigan in conversation with Fiona Shaw11. Staging Barker in America - Andy W. Smith in conversation with Cheryl Faraone and Richard Romagnoli12. Barker from a Viewpoint: Staging Ursula: Fear of the Estuary - Sarah Crews13. Staging Barker at Scotland's Conservatoire - Mark Brown in conversation with Hugh Hodgart14. ‘A Gallery Of Images’: from the Aberystwyth Students - David Ian RabeyEndnotes Index

James Reynolds is a Lecturer in Drama at Kingston University, London, UK. He has also taught at Queen Mary, University of London, and Rose Bruford College. Dr Andy W. Smith is the Associate Head of the School of Media at the University of South Wales, UK. His doctoral thesis is a study of Howard Barker and his theatre company The Wrestling School. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on the theatre of Howard Barker, post-war British drama, horror cinema and the Gothic in popular culture.

The work of British playwright, director, painter, and photographer Howard Barker (b. 1946) is not well known in the US, although this eclectic but richly rewarding volume makes apparent it should be. Indeed, Barker's drama and the loosely affiliated group dedicated to producing it since 1986, the Wrestling School, are arguably marginal even in their native Britain. For this one can blame both Barker’s eccentric, polyphonous, resistant, emphatically anti-naturalistic texts (which, as the editors are quick to assure the reader, are ‘different’ rather than difficult) and his uncompromising dedication to an alternative discipline of theater, which he has unfolded in a series of commentaries dedicated to the ‘theatre of catastrophe.’ Here, in an interview published as ‘On Discipline,’ Barker remarks: ‘My intense concern is that the experience of the play is not diluted by weak practices.’ The book comprises three complementary sections: ‘Howard Barker and the Wrestling School’ offers essays and interviews with Barker and some of the regular actors and directors associated with the Wrestling School over three decades; ‘Readings/Inversions’ provides scholarly considerations of Barker’s work in relation to ‘new writing,’ spirituality, and visuality; and ‘Other Barkers’ offers essays scanning particular productions and approaches. Reynolds and Smith make a strong case for (re)discovering Barker’s important oeuvre. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

• AcknowledgmentsList of Photographic PlatesNotes on ContributorsIntroduction - James Reynolds and Andy W. Smith Part One: Howard Barker and The Wrestling SchoolIntroduction to Part One 1. A Company and its Origins - James Reynolds in conversation with Kenny Ireland2. From the Actor, to the Actor - Nicholas Le Prevost, Philip Franks, James Clyde, Sean O'Callaghan, Jules Melvin, Victoria Wicks and Suzy Cooper3. Directing Slowly - Hanna Berrigan4. Amplifying Catastrophe - Ace McCarron 5. On Discipline - James Reynolds in conversation with Howard Barker Part Two: Readings/Inversions Introduction to Part Two6. ‘To experience a thing as beautiful’: the Photographic Practice of Howard Barker - Andy W. Smith 7. Vintage Barker: New Writing in Old Bottles - James Hudson 8. Howard Barker and the Return of Religion - Peter A. Groves 9. Going Underground - James Reynolds Part Three: Other BarkersIntroduction to Part Three10. Acting Barker - Hanna Berrigan in conversation with Fiona Shaw11. Staging Barker in America - Andy W. Smith in conversation with Cheryl Faraone and Richard Romagnoli12. Barker from a Viewpoint: Staging Ursula: Fear of the Estuary - Sarah Crews13. Staging Barker at Scotland's Conservatoire - Mark Brown in conversation with Hugh Hodgart14. ‘A Gallery Of Images’: from the Aberystwyth Students - David Ian RabeyEndnotes Index