Decolonizing the Stage

`wide-ranging, comparative monograph ... Balme's ambitious project is very successful. It provides a useful conceptual framework within which to examine the diversity of post-colonial performance practices and compelling close readings of individual texts. Moreover, it opens the field of post-colonial theatre studies to include works little-discussed to this point without over-extending the use of a post-colonial rubric. Written in a clear and engaging style, Decolonizing the Stage contributes handsomely to a growing corpus on Anglophone post-colonial theatre.' Erin Hurley, Theatre Journal, 53/2 May 2001 `One of the book's great strengths is the simultaneous range and focus of Balme's examination. Geographically and culturally, this spans the (primarily English-speaking) post-colonial nations and regions of India, Africa, the Caribbean, Australia, New-Zealand, and Canada through a compelling comparative analysis. Usefully, however, he also focuses on the work of particular playwrights within these regions ... so that his examples are constructively developed.' New Theatre Quarterly `Building on the fieldwork of other scholars as well as his own, Balme brings to this field a rigorous grasp and lucid presentation of the relevant theory ... should add to ongoing debate about postcolonial theater including debate about the value of the term itself.' Loren Kruger, Research in African Literatures Vol 30 no 4 Winter 1999 `Balme's book makes a major contribution to the emerging body of criticism dealing with post-colonial drama... the real merit of this book is the extraordinarily wide range of dramatists it covers, many of whom will be unfamiliar even to scholars supposedly well-versed in the field. Balme does a good job of finding common elements in this extremely diverse mass of material, while at the same time doing justice to the genuine differences among the authors he analyzes... presented in admirably clear and straightforward prose.' Virginia Quarterly Review, Vol.76 No.1