Books by Howard Barker

An essential item for all those who are concerned with modern British theater, including students, academics, and practitioners.

The loss of faith and cynical corruption of the few priests left at the Abbey of Calcetto is unexpectedly challenged by the arrival of a young man with an unsullied and passionate belief in God. The boy Loftus gradually acquires a huge moral ascendancy through the intensity and purity of his faith, but he is then brutally punished by the priests.

This is the latest collection of Barker's revelatory philosophical musings on theatre. It is an array of speculations, deductions and prose poems, which cast a unique light on the nature of theatre.

Howard Barker does not accept the conventions of what he terms "The Establishment Theatre". These writings on the nature of theatre reject the constraints of "objective" academic theatre criticism, but explore the collision and collusion of intellect and artistry in the creative act.