'We object to progress,' said the venerable Professor of Worldly Wisdom. When the traveller Higgs discovers the remote land of Erewhon he finds a strange race who have forbidden the use of machines, who treat their sick like criminals and their criminals like sick people, who suppress originality and hold that the greatest scholarly achievement is proficiency in the study of unreason and hypothetics. The great debunker of the social and religious hypocrisy of his day, Samuel Butler began to write this satirical novel shortly after he had read The Origin of Species, which influenced him greatly. First published in 1872, Erewhon still retains its freshness and originality and we have as much to learn from it as ever.

The reality of a play is in its performance. "Making Theatre" focuses on the processes by which performance is realized, analyzing three major areas: "Words" and the interpretation of the text; "Vision", including scenery, costume and lighting; and "Music" which illustrates the importance of music in all stage action.;The forms of theatre covered include straight drama, the musical and opera. Taking productions well-known on both sides of the Atlantic, Peter Mudford examines plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Pirandello, Beckett, Pinter, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and David Mamet; musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter and Stephen Sondheim; and operas by Verdi, Wagner and Berg. This account of what makes theatre important and how it works will be valuable to teachers and students of drama and performance, as well as all those interested in theatre as an art.