Edinburgh University Press has just announced the publication of a new monograph by Jonathan McAllister. Titled Beckett, Performance and the Miming Body in Theatre, Film and Television the book takes Beckett’s mimes as a departure point and questions the value of his close attention to and choreography of the body for performance. It examines how Beckett’s encounters with the traditions of twentieth-century French mime impacted his theatrical imagination and directorial practices, exploring his uses of the miming body across a wide range of postwar works for theatre, film and television. Drawing on phenomenological philosophy, poststructural theory, performance analysis and historical literature, McAllister argues that Beckett’s dramatic works provide a bodily commentary on being in mid- to late twentieth-century Europe: they constitute an embodied philosophical inquiry into the questions and anxieties for a generation experiencing a profound crisis of meaning.
The book will be launched on 12 August 2026 in The Bawden Room of Jesus College, Cambridge when the author will appear in interview with Prof Anna McMullan. Enttry is free but attendees must register beforehand at this link.
Full details and ordering information can be found here. Save 30% by using the code NEW30 at checkout.
The Samuel Beckett Society 