AN ACTOR'S TRICKS by Yoshi Oida and Lorna Marshall, foreword by Peter Brook. London: Methuen Drama, A&A Black Ltd., 2007, 102 pp., £10.99 (paper)

Yoshi Oida, born in 1933, is one of Japan's most interesting actor-directors. Trained in the classical stage disciplines, particularly that of the Kyogen, Oida went to France in 1968, becoming a founding member of Peter Brook's celebrated international theater company.

Since then he has appeared in a number of Brook's productions including "The Tempest" and "The Mahabharata," as well as various films including Masahiro Shinoda's "Buraikan" and Peter Greenway's "The Pillowbook." He has also created his own stage presentations and is now as well-known as a director as he is as an actor.

In both roles he blends the Asian tradition of studied control with the Western concern to characterize and expose emotion. In so doing he examines the ways in which an actor can create life on the stage. This he has indicated in two prior volumes, "An Actor Adrift" and "The Invisible Actor." This third volume completes the trilogy.