The book comes alive in its loving exploration of emblematic performances that blaze thrilling new directions for performance and for the narratives that support them There is a wealth of inspiration here. Summing Up: Highly recommended. * CHOICE * In a wonderful book that sets itself compellingly against death, against tragedy, against the closures and comforts of (theatrical) repetition, Maurya Wickstrom designates the theatre she loves as the source of an irruptive force of initiation. An initiation that is not against anything, that is not mere resistance, but insists instead upon being for something, for something before the end, for revolution, perhaps. Its bold claims are sustained through illuminating attention to the experience of a contemporary theatre that wrestles with its own contemporaneity. -- Nicholas Ridout, Queen Mary, University of London, UK