For more than three decades Howard Barker has argued passionately against the deformation of English theatre by social realism. Insisting on the primacy of tragedy over all art forms in Western culture, his elaboration of a tragic form for our time – identified by him as The Theatre of Catastrophe – is the theme of this collection of lectures and essays. Barker's repudiation of entertainment, his insistence on the sterility of debate in theatre, and his conviction that conscience is never an adequate pretext for dramatic action, mark him out as a unique and provocative voice in world theatre.