Introduction by Donald Lyons What Is Theatre?, originally published in 1968, collects some of Eric Bentley's theater criticism. Another key book is Bentley's "The Dramatic Event." Bentley's most productive years as a reviewer coincided with the greatest years of 20thC drama. His essays cover T. S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams, Jean Anouilh, and Arthur Miller, among others, as well as subjects as far-ranging as Charlie Chaplin and the Peking Opera. Bentley is essential for understanding the American theater.
Author
He was a theater critic and translator. Taught freshman English at UCLA for a year. And that is where he met the "German playwright Bertolt Brecht, who had recently immigrated to the United States after fleeing Nazi Germany and was unknown in this country. The two of them became close, and it was Bentley who translated a lot of Brecht's work into English and helped establish his career in America." source - American Public Media
