Table of Contents

Introduction
Producing the New Public: Der Lohndrücker, 1956-60
Process and the Public Forum: Der Horatier, 1968-73
Treating Woodworm: Wolokolamsker Chaussee IV: Kentauren, 1986
"SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THIS AGE OF HOPE": Der Lohndrücker at the Deutsches Theater, 1988-91
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

Wood . . . reconstructs several important earlier productions of Lohndrücker and Horatier by other directors, using them as foils to demonstrate the importance and impact of Müller's artistic choices in 1988. . . . [The author's assiduous archival sleuthing] represents exemplary dramaturgical scholarship, a valuable body of reliable background information assembled to preserve and illuminate an ephemeral theatre event whose enduring scholarly interest [he] makes clear.
*MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW*

[O]ffers new perspectives and compelling arguments on Müller's work and its social-historical position. The book will therefore be of interest and critical value to scholars of Heiner Müller, German theater, the GDR, and divided Germany. While the extensive archival research alone provides a wealth of new materials, . . . Wood's rigorous interdisciplinarity and his careful work at the intersection of drama and theater studies also make the book important for scholars in cultural and theater studies more broadly.
*MONATSHEFTE*

Michael Wood's monograph provides an excellent investigation of Heiner Mueller's pursuit of effective political theater. . . . By directing readers' attention to the social basis of human character and shifting boundaries of collective experience and action, Wood's monograph proves particularly timely as it reminds readers that the production and reception of art can and should have social and political consequences.
*GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW*

[V]ery clearly structured and written . . . . [M]akes a clear case for Müller's understanding of reception as a democratic force.
*JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES*

[C]ompelling and well-executed . . . . Wood's study succeeds admirably in fulfilling [its] goals . . . . Indeed, it is especially notable for successfully juggling the empirical and the theoretical aspects of audience response. . . . [T]hrough this excellent work, we glimpse a positive vision of the 'democratic socialism' in Müller's oeuvre that outlives the circumstances of its conception.
*MODERN DRAMA*

Wood's investigation usefully foregrounds Müller's interest in democratic processes in which he wanted his audiences to be actively involved.
*NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY*

[G]lean[s] valuable critical insight from meticulous archival work. . . . Like Müller says of his own theatrical practice, 'Es wird ein Prozeß vorgeführt, nicht ein Resultat abgeliefert,' . . . Wood's scholarship . . . makes its notable contribution to Müller studies, in which 'a process is shown rather than a result delivered.
*STUDIES IN 20TH- AND 21ST-CENTURY LITERATURE*

Michael Wood's timely new study of Heiner Müller offers an incisive view into the work of East Germany's most famous dramaturge.
*GERMAN QUARTERLY*

Wood's conclusion is that M. had a radical concept of democracy in mind that could not be reconciled with either the SED system or the Western, liberal understanding of democracy, and that this concept remained stable until the author's death. A democratic theater, he argues, is one that arises from dissent and by way of conflicts provokes different reactions from the audience. Here Wood shows the difference between M. and Brecht, for M.'s conception of a democratic theater from which a democratic audience emerges is merely a utopian wish, a striving for the impossible, which is the proper task of art. Wood's study is recommended as a good introduction to M.'s theatrical theory and practice.
*GERMANISTIK*