This book examines how a predominantly negative view of community has presented a challenge to
critical analysis of community performance practice. The concept of community as a form of
class-based solidarity has been hollowed out by postmodernism's questioning of grand narratives
and poststructuralism's celebration of difference. Alongside the critique of a notion of
community has been a critical re-signification of community following the thinking of
philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy who conceives of community not as common being but as
being-in-common. The concept of community as being-in-common generates questions that have been
taken up by feminist geographers J.K. Gibson-Graham in theorising a post-capitalist approach
to community-based development. These questions and approaches guide the analyses in researched
case studies of community performance practice. The book revises theoretical debates that have
defined the field of community theatre and performance. It asks how the critical
re-signification of community aligns with these debates and at the same time opens new modes
of critical analysis of community theatre and performance practice.
