This book, first published in 1993, is the first full-length analysis of Samuel Beckett's later drama in the context of contemporary critical and performance theory. It employs a close, textual examination of the later plays as a springboard for exploring ideas around authority, gender and the ideology of performance.

1. Mimicking Mimesis 1.1. Play: Theatre on Trial 1.2. Catastrophe: The Body in Representation 1.3. What Where: Shades of Authority 2. Masquerades of Self 2.1. That Time: Between Frames 2.2. A Piece of Monologue: Beyond the Frame 3. This Sex Which Is Not One 3.1. Not I: Staging the Feminine - From Excess to Absence 3.2. Come and Go: A Pattern of Shades 4. Refiguring Authority 4.1. Footfalls: Dreadfully Un- 4.2. Rockaby: Those Arms At Last 4.3. Ohio Impromptu: Rites of Passage