The late twentieth century saw an explosion of interest in semiotics, the science of the signs and processes by which we communicate. In this study, the first of its kind in English, Keir Elam shows how this new 'science' can provide a radical shift in our understanding of theatrical performance, one of our richest and most complex forms of communication.
Elam traces the history of semiotic approaches to performance, from 1930s Prague onwards, and presents a model of theatrical communication. In the course of his study, he touches upon the 'logic' of the drama and the analysis of dramatic...

Keir Elam's book is the first full-length study of the role of graphic and iconographic images in Shakespeare and references performance history throughout. Chapters examine plays in which pictures are brought on stage as part of the dramatic action (Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, among others); the embedding of images from the popular imagination in the action and discourse of the plays; the dialectic between optical and auditory illusion in the romance or late plays, or "how" the visual is "heard" in the theatre, and the question of...