Beckett, Performance and the Miming Body in Theatre, Film and Television

Jonathan McAllister is a supervisor in English Studies at the University of Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD in 2024. His research focuses on twentieth-century theatre and performance, with a particular interest in the politics, aesthetics and philosophies of the body. He has written theatre and book reviews for the Journal of Beckett Studies, Theatre Survey, The Beckett Review and The Modernist Review.

• List of FiguresSeries Editor’s PrefaceAcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsNotes Introduction: Beckett’s Miming BodiesPart I. Mimes1. Beckett and Mime Part II. Plays2. Movement: Performing Impotential 3. Gesture: Being-in-a-Medium 4. Posture: Humanity in RuinsConclusion: ‘Where now? Who now? When now?'BibliographyIndex

McAllister offers a strikingly fresh and deeply illuminating contribution to Beckett Studies. Grounded in close readings of texts and theatre productions, and situated within the history of mime, this study presents an invigorating new perspective on corporeality in Beckett’s work. By centring the material presence of the actor’s body, McAllister uncovers a boldly original vision of Beckett’s oeuvre as it reimagines the very nature of the human.