Bloomsbury Revelations

No one has had a greater influence on acting as we know it than Stanislavski. His ''method'' - or interpretations of it - has become the central force determining almost every performance we see on stage or screen.

In My Life in Art Stanislavski recalls his theatrical career, from his early experiences in Rubinstein''s Russian Musical Society to his final triumphs with Chekhov at the Moscow Art Theatre. His vivid accounts of his own most famous productions including ''The Seagul'' and ''Uncle Vanya'' are interspersed with anecdotes of the famous - of Kommisarjevksy, Tolstoy, Gorky, and of the Moscow visit of Isadora Duncan and Gordon Craig.