Preface - Acknowledgements - Hamlet's Doubles - Doubling: Theory and Practice - Casting the Chorus - Coriolanus: Casting the Crowd - Casting Hamlet: Two Traditions - Lear's System and Cordelia's Aside: Leading the Audience - Laughter in King Richard II: The Subplot of Mood - Metamorphoses of the Audience - Dramatis Personae - Measure for Measure: Casting the Star - Within the Bermuda Triangle: Reflections on The Tempest - Falstaff's Space: The Tavern as Pastoral - Notes - Index

These studies of Shakespeare in performance take stage history as a means of knowing the play. Half these studies deal with casting: doubling, Chorus and the crowd, the star of Hamlet and Measure for Measure. The transformations of The Tempest and Dramatis Personae are analysed. Audience control is studied in King Lear, through Cordelia's asides, in Richard II with its subversive laughter, and in Henry IV with its scenic alternation of pleasure and duty. Performance is the realization of identity.