Reviewed by:

• The Life of Training by John Matthews
• Garret Camilleri

John Matthews’ book, The Life of Training, is the third of his printed works positioned between the Philosophy and Drama subjects in the library. From the text’s introduction, readers will join the continuation of Matthews’ studies on performance training linked to the human experience seen in his previous works: Training for Performance (2011) and Anatomy of Performance (2014). Matthews› text is grounded heavily in Hannah Arendt›s research on the convergence between thinking, willing, and judging from her book, The Life of the Mind (1978). The Life of the Mind shares many overlapping concepts with Matthews as they examine human thought concerning external stimuli, thought versus thinking, and the human experience of time.

The Life of Training explores the connection between thinking and training within the context of time, framed by Theatre. It does not aspire to transfer practical applications of pedagogy or techniques. Instead, it considers «how training as a process indivisible from thinking constitutes the temporal aspect of the human experience of living, which will necessarily be constituted differently in this life or that life» (24). Matthews claims that all forms of training are inseparable from time and therefore produce it. He argues that training arises from an actor›s past (knowledge). Actors, as trainees, engage their history with their future, which is [End Page 116] the destination of their efforts. Consequently, all training is then honed within the present (Now); time informs training, and training informs the human experience of time. While each chapter ahistorically engages in independent conversations around performance training, a throughline of this book is general temporality.

One of the book’s strengths is its supportive research. In preparation, Matthews conducted a series of interviews with co-workers at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in the United Kingdom. While instructing and directing the theatre’s acting program, Matthews discovered a shared sentiment from his conversations: “training is being done better in other fields; that institutions of sport in particular... are training practitioners of these crafts better than actor-training institutions” (7). His interviews continued to other performance-based disciplines, like an Olympic dive team, which supports his thesis in chapter four. Although it is not a unique comparison, I appreciated the link between occupations and often highlighted passages deviating from the theatre.

The Life of Training’s methodological framework is thoughtfully scaffolded and logical. The bibliography will appeal to a broad cross-section of readership as Matthews borrows from established canon frameworks (Stanislavsky, Grotowski, and Suzuki) while inviting international voices to join his discourse. The documentation reinforcing his arguments ranges from Heinrich von Kleist›s essay, Über das Marionettentheater, to Etienne Souriau›s book, La Correspondance des Arts. The Life of Training is a rich but dense contribution to conditioning and performance theory, and the book may leave more questions than explanations for many theatre practitioners. Unless you are already aware of the numerous philosophical concepts mentioned in this book, you should not expect an encyclopedic dive into their inner workings.

The Life of Training divides into seven chapters that correspond with a biological characteristic of human life: Homeostasis, Growth, Stimulation, Organization, Adaptation, Reproduction, and Heritability. The scope of topics in this book is discursively vast. Readers will find themselves revisiting historical figures like David Garrick, then on the next page, they will read about nuclear war, robot uprising, and how training could be the reason for our extinction “amid an increasingly threatening environment that humans themselves have helped to create” (103). Each chapter begins with an anthropomorphized marionette illustration by the artist Andy Park. Park’s sketches are a welcome addition to the book because they embody the chapter’s theme and visually reinforce them.

Each chapter then functions as a stand-alone analysis of a particular human condition that relates to temporality in performance training. For example, in chapter three, “Stimulation,” Matthews discusses the nebulous concept of Now (in-the-moment performance) and its relationship to training through actions that contribute to the development of humankind. An argument in «Stimulation» is that Now, is not what “we generally...

审核人：

• 约翰马修斯的训练生活
• 阁楼卡米莱里

约翰·马修斯 (John Matthews) 的书《训练的生活》(The Life of Training ) 是他印刷的第三本作品，位于图书馆的哲学和戏剧科目之间。从文本的介绍中，读者将加入 Matthews 对与人类经验相关的绩效训练研究的延续，这些研究与他之前作品中看到的人类经验有关：绩效培训(2011) 和绩效剖析(2014)。Matthews 的文本很大程度上基于汉娜·阿伦特 (Hannah Arendt) 的著作《心灵的生活》( The Life of the Mind, 1978)中关于思考、意愿和判断之间的融合的研究。心灵的生活与马修斯分享许多重叠的概念，因为他们研究了关于外部刺激、思想与思想以及人类时间体验的人类思想。

训练生活探索了在时间背景下思考和训练之间的联系，以剧院为框架。它不希望转移教学法或技术的实际应用。相反，它考虑“作为一个与思考不可分割的过程的训练如何构成人类生活经验的时间方面，这在今生或彼生必然会以不同的方式构成”（24）。马修斯声称，所有形式的培训都与时间密不可分，因此产生了时间。他认为训练源于演员的过去（知识）。演员作为受训者，将他们的历史与他们的未来联系起来，这是[End Page 116]他们努力的目的地。因此，所有的训练都是在现在（现在）内磨练的；时间为训练提供信息，而训练为人类的时间体验提供信息。虽然每一章都在历史上围绕性能训练进行独立对话，但本书的主线是一般的时间性。

这本书的优势之一是它的支持性研究。在准备过程中，马修斯对英国普利茅斯皇家剧院的同事进行了一系列采访。在指导和指导剧院的表演节目时，马修斯从他的谈话中发现了一种共同的情绪：“其他领域的培训做得更好；特别是体育机构……比演员培训机构更好地培训这些手艺的从业者”（7）。他的采访继续到其他基于表现的学科，比如奥林匹克跳水队，这支持了他在第四章中的论文。虽然这不是一个独特的比较，但我很欣赏职业之间的联系，并且经常强调偏离戏剧的段落。

《培训生活》的方法论框架经过深思熟虑且合乎逻辑。参考书目将吸引广泛的读者群，因为马修斯借鉴了既定的经典框架（斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基、格罗托夫斯基和铃木），同时邀请国际声音加入他的演讲。从海因里希·冯·克莱斯特 (Heinrich von Kleist) 的论文 Über das Marionettentheater 到艾蒂安·苏里奥 (Etienne Souriau) 的著作《艺术通讯》( La Correspondance des Arts)，强化他论点的文献范围很广。训练生活是对调节和表演理论的丰富而密集的贡献，对于许多戏剧从业者来说，这本书可能留下的问题多于解释。除非您已经了解本书中提到的众多哲学概念，否则您不应该期望对它们的内部运作进行百科全书式的深入了解。

训练的生命分为七个章节，对应于人类生命的生物学特征：体内平衡、生长、刺激、组织、适应、繁殖和遗传。本书的主题范围非常广泛。读者会发现自己重温了像大卫加里克这样的历史人物，然后在下一页，他们将阅读有关核战争、机器人起义以及训练如何成为我们灭绝的原因“在人类自己帮助创造的日益危险的环境中”（103）。每一章都以艺术家安迪·帕克 (Andy Park) 的拟人化木偶插图开始。帕克的素描是这本书的一个受欢迎的补充，因为它们体现了本章的主题并在视觉上强化了它们。

然后，每一章都作为对与绩效培训的时间性相关的特定人类状况的独立分析。例如，在第三章“刺激”中，Matthews 讨论了“当下”（即时表现）这一模糊概念及其与通过有助于人类发展的行动进行培训的关系。«Stimulation» 中的一个论点是Now不是“我们通常......