The Problems of Viewing Performance

"The book demonstrates an important intersection between questions of ontology and questions of value in performance. Bennet makes an assumption that there is an ontological relationship between performances, which supports his shift away from thinking of performance events to seeing knowledge of a play emerging through a process of performance and viewing, responding and reflecting on those performances. It is clear that his work makes an important contribution to performance studies by acknowledging the imperfect nature of viewing performances and the real-world problems of audiences made up of individuals with their own unique vantage point on the stage and their own unique sets of feelings and beliefs that they bring into the theatre space."

Karen Simecek, University of Warwick, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, UK

"Michael Y. Bennett occupies a near-solitary place in what he rightly calls the 'philosophical turn in theatre and performance studies in the new millennium'.. For now, he remains the primary torch-carrier for analytic philosophy's place in drama and theatre studies, and one can hope that the epistemological challenges raised by The Problems of Viewing Performance receive further development in future monographs and articles."

Brice Ezell, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, USA