Book Reviews: "Shattering Hamlet's Mirror: Theatre and Reality," by Marvin Carlson

Carlson points to the removal of masks (prominent in Greek theatre, Japanese noh, and commedia dell'arte) as a step away from illusion to reality, as actors can be recognized and audiences reminded that these are individuals with real personalities. Carlson employs Buffalo Bill Cody and Ned Buntline's theatrical endeavors in the nineteenth century as his primary case study in this chapter, with additional references to Luigi Pirandello, Bruce Nauman, Yvonne Rainer, Eleanor Antin, and the creative team Rimini Protokoll. By illustrating how objects from the real world have been brought in and, in some cases, recognized and remembered by audience members, Carlson shows that properties, even dismembered skulls, can have a life and history offstage, in actuality, that can become ghosted onstage during performance.