This is a handbook of ideas and arguments on theatre. It gathers together a wide-ranging selection of original writings on theatre by its most creative practitioners - directors, playwrights, performers and designers, from Jarry to Grotowski and Craig to Caryl Churchill. These key texts span the 20th century, from the onset of modernism to the present. They provide direct access to the thinking behind much of the most stimulating theatre our century has had to offer, as well as a guide to the most adventurous current developments. Setting theory beside practice, the writings aim to bring alive a number of vital and continuing concerns, each of which is given full scope in five sections which explore the modernist, political, inner and global dimensions of 20th century theatre.