In this book, the author discusses fifteen plays, addressing Shakespeare's experimentation, the power and intelligence of his inconsistencies, his novel happy endings, and ultimately, how each comedy can be performed.

Shakespeare at the Moment: Playing the Comedies

Literature & Fiction

Bermel, Albert

Dramas & Plays

Heinemann Drama

Certainty may give way to misgiving, happiness may become unease. Moment-to-moment changes often make actors and directors pause and ponder when deciding to perform a Shakespeare comedy. But this should not be the case, claims theatre scholar Albert Bermel. In Shakespeare at the Moment, Bermel contends that Shakespeare's comedies depend for their effects on their sparkling inconsistency and spontaneity, and on the opportunities they offer for artistic ingenuity and initiative. The book discusses fifteen plays, addressing Shakespeare's experimentation, the power and intelligence of his inconsistencies, his novel "happy" endings, and ultimately, how each comedy can be performed. Among other things, Bermel argues that:The characters in these plays are not rigidified personalities, and actors will, almost inevitably, add their own "characterizations" to their roles.Shakespeare created scenes and roles that actors can rediscover and remake without being untrue to the words. Shakespeare's female roles are the most persuasive and familiar carriers of the feminine spirit in today's theatre worldBermel encourages actors to reinvent and "characterize" Shakespeare's characters in their own acting, and he provides examples of how the comedies have already responded to the imaginative treatment of a director and the memorable dynamism of particular actors.

Shakespeare at the Moment

The definitive guide to the life and work of Antonin Artaud 
 Antonin Artaud's theatre of cruelty is one of the most vital forces in world theatre, yet the concept is one of the most frequently misunderstood. In this incisive study, Albert Bermel looks closely at Artaud's work as a playwright, director, actor, designer, producer and critic, and provides a fresh insight into his ideas, innovations and, above all, his writings. 
Tracing the theatre of cruelty's origins in earlier dramatic conventions, tribal rituals of cleansing, transfiguration and exaltation, and in related arts such as film and dance, Bermel examines each of Artaud's six plays for form and meaning, as well as surveying the application of Artaud's theories and techniques to the international theatre of recent years.

Artaud's Theatre Of Cruelty (Plays and Playwrights)

Methuen Drama

Providing an interpretation of the modern theatre, this is a new edition of a classic work of drama criticism.

Contradictory Characters: An Interpretation of the Modern Theatre

E.P.Dutton

Farce: A History from Aristophanes to Woody Allen

Farce: A history from Aristophanes to Woody Allen

Simon&Schuster

Farce elicits an immediate, elemental response from all age levels, cutting across national and intellectual boundaries. It dates back to peopleâ€™s first attempts to scoff in public at whatever their neighbors cherished in private: social prestige, eccentricities, virtues that are vices, friendships, and enmities.Albert Bermel, teacher, writer, and translator of farce, takes readers on an instructive and hilarious voyage from the classical Greek stage through English Restoration and French farce, to the young Hollywood of Mack Sennett, Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd, the other silent farceurs of the Jazz Age, and on to W. C. Fields, Mae West, Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Monty Python—including other greats along the way like Hope and Crosby, Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers.

Farce: The Comprehensive and Definitive Account of One of the World's Funniest Art Forms

History & Criticism

Touchstone Book

Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty

Taplinger Pub. Co

Moliere's Theatrical Bounty: A New View of the Plays

Exploring each of Molière’s 33 plays (including the divertissements) for its theatrical possibilities, Bermel deals with dramatic structures, settings, roles and their interactions, original productions, and outstanding recent stage performances in France, Britain, and the United States. His emphasis is theatrical rather than literary, philosophical, or biographical, although he necessarily brings these considerations to bear when discussing certain plays.
Bermel introduces a new methodology, one featuring the type of scrutiny directors, actors, and designers apply to any play before and during rehearsal. Thus he studies the dramatic implications of each scene or part of a scene by noting which characters are present, which ones are absent, and why. He analyzes each role, explores interactions among characters, traces the significance of structure, considers how much information is provided and who provides it, and examines such notable background factors as setting, season, and scenic arrangement. Using this methodology, Bermel provides new interpretations of Molière’s most celebrated plays and demonstrates that many of the less famous plays also deserve attention.
Previous Molière critics have been conservative, especially in that they favor traditional stagings; Bermel, however, encourages new explorations of the plays. His main intention is to keep Molière alive and vital for present and future readers and audiences. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his attention to, and sympathy for, female characters and their points of view.

Humor & Entertainment

Southern Illinois University Press

Exploring each of Molière’s 33 plays (including the divertissements) for its theatrical possibilities, Bermel deals with dramatic structures, settings, roles and their interactions, original productions, and outstanding recent stage performances in France, Britain, and the United States. His emphasis is theatrical rather than literary, philosophical, or biographical, although he necessarily brings these considerations to bear when discussing certain plays.
Bermel introduces a new methodology, one featuring the type of scrutiny directors, actors, and designers apply to any play before and during rehearsal. Thus he studies the dramatic implications of each scene or part of a scene by noting which characters are present, which ones are absent, and why. He analyzes each role, explores interactions among characters, traces the significance of structure, considers how much information is provided and who provides it, and examines such notable background factors as setting, season, and scenic arrangement. Using this methodology, Bermel provides new interpretations of Molière’s most celebrated plays and demonstrates that many of the less famous plays also deserve attention.
Previous Molière critics have been conservative, especially in that they favor traditional stagings; Bermel, however, encourages new explorations of the plays. His main intention is to keep Molière alive and vital for present and future readers and audiences. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his attention to, and sympathy for, female characters and their points of view.

Comic Agony: Mixed Impressions in the Modern Theatre

A companion volume to Contradictory characters, this book analyzes the juxtaposition of the tragic and the comic in modern drama.

Northwestern University Press

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Books by Bermel, Albert

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bermel, Albert. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Shakespeare at the Moment: Playing the Comedies

Shakespeare at the Moment

Artaud's Theatre Of Cruelty (Plays and Playwrights)

Contradictory Characters: An Interpretation of the Modern Theatre

Farce: A history from Aristophanes to Woody Allen

Farce: The Comprehensive and Definitive Account of One of the World's Funniest Art Forms

Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty

Moliere's Theatrical Bounty: A New View of the Plays

Moliere's Theatrical Bounty: A New View of the Plays

Comic Agony: Mixed Impressions in the Modern Theatre