This is the first attempt that has been undertaken to provide an overview of the dramatic works of Botho Strauss (b. 1944). It centers on the ambivalence at the heart of Strauss' vision, containing as it does complex worlds and paradoxes alongside strict norms, and also takes account of the panoply of historical and present-day ideas which this poeta doctus inscribes into his texts. Discussion is also given to Strauss' predilection for enriching his texts with innovative theorems from mathematics, the natural sciences and sociology. One of the results of the undertaking is a fundamental review of the 'constituents' of drama itself, time and space, language and dialogue, plot causality and figure."