"The Politics of Performance" is a contribution to the long-running debate about the theatre as an agent of change. It addresses fundamental questions about the social and political purposes of performance, through its investigation into post-war alternative and community theatre. The author proposes a theory of performance as ideological transaction, cultural intervention and community action, examining the nature of alternative theatre as a movement and the aesthetics of its styles of production, especially in the context of progressive activity elsewhere. It analyzes in detail the work of key practitioners in socially engaged theatre during four decades, and provides a detailed analysis of oppositional theatre as radical cultural practice. This book should be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics of drama and theatre studies, cultural studies and professional theatre workers.