Shakespeare and the Cultures of Performance. Ed. Paul Yachnin and Patricia Badir. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008. Pp. xiii + 224. Cloth £ 50.00

This volume of essays, which aims to ‘bring better understanding to Shakespeare’s imaginative investment in the relationship between theatrical production and the emotional, intellectual and cultural effects of performance broadly defined in social terms’ (fly leaf), is dedicated to Tony Dawson, whose work features throughout. Dawson’s essay on ‘Shakespeare and Secular Performance’ appears in the first section on ‘Shakespeare and Early Modern Cultures of Performance’, and references to the wider body of his work appear in other contributions. Yachnin and Badir regard Dawson’s 1991 essay ‘The Impasse over the Stage’ as seminal to the thinking behind this book, noting that Dawson ‘challenges Shakespeareans to bridge the gap between theatre and the world – between ways of describing theatrical performance and ways of describing the social world in which the theatre is situated’ (p. 2). The contributors celebrate this challenge, delivering nine essays ranging from ‘Performing Exchanges in The Merchant of Venice’ (Sean Lawrence), to ‘Performance Anxiety and/in Troilus and Cressida’ (Gretchen Minton).The contributors ‘see cultures of performance as replete with opportunities for creating new social identities and idioms and new theatrical forms and experiences’ (p. 5), and the volume has duly been divided into essays examining this area from modern, and early modern perspectives.

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