This is a book in which ideology and performance shadow each other, in a theoretical inquiry which ranges widely across historical periods and cultures. The author's concerns - which include the social meaning of illusion and the cultural manifestation of power - take the reader from Eleanora Duse to Laurie Anderson; from the puppet theatre of Kleist to Kantor's theatre of the dead; and from the Kutiyattam temple dancers in Kerala to Womanhouse in Los Angeles. This book should be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics of theatre and cultural studies.