This essay examines the politics of the disturbances and riots that rocked Philip Astley's Dublin Amphitheatre, the site of Ireland's first circus, during the 1790s. Astley received the first legal recognition for his circus from a colonial administration in Ireland because of the loyalism of his entertainments and, throughout the 1790s, his Dublin Amphitheatre worked to mobilize the Irish masses in the interest of the crown and the empire. But, as this essay shows, these loyalist entertainments were also repeatedly disrupted by the counter-theatre of the Jacobin-inspired group, the United Irishmen, who used this site to rally support not only for the Irish nationalist revolution but also for the broader democratic revolution then being staged all around the Atlantic rim.

The Australian career of the young American actor Minnie Tittell Brune exemplifies the complex cultural and economic forces operating on the institution of live theatre at the beginning of the twentieth century. Brune focalizes the contemporary processes which reconstituted the international institution of mass entertainment out of the traditional cultural practices of theatre. The theatrical star is seen as both engaging with and resisting the commodification of her labour power, image and talent resulting from her ambiguous industrial role as magnetic ‘star’ and as managerial commodity. However, the iconic and affective power of the actor evokes strong attachment from significant sections of the newly heterosocial popular audience, in particular from the gallery girls, the young female audience who idolized Brune as a performative personality enacting social self-realization and glamorous transformation. Through reading Brune's repertoire, her social persona as ‘star’ and her ‘emotional’ performative style, it is demonstrated how artistic retro-glamour, religious evangelicalism and discourses of sexuality and femininity serve to manage theatre's move into the mass-entertainment age.

This article traces the transnational career of the celebrated Beijing opera female impersonator Mei Lanfang (1894–1961) through photographic documentation of the performer. A wide spectrum of Mei's photos is analysed, which captures him both onstage and offstage. The timeline of these photos ranges from those produced during the Republican period (1911–49) to those produced in the People's Republic of China (PRC) (1949–) and includes media coverage from the US (1920s) and the USSR (1930s). This article raises questions about how nationalism, transnationalism and female impersonator's gender identity are represented in ever-transforming modes.

The Editor regrets that an article in 31:1 (Spring 2006) of Theatre Research International infringes the copyright of an earlier doctoral dissertation. In the article “Stages of Disillusionment: Barthes, Brecht and the End of Thé̌atre Populaire” by Donia Mounsef, passages from Timothy Scheie's dissertation Body Trouble: Roland Barthes, Theater, and the Corporeal Sign (submitted to the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1992) are copied with a failure to cite the dissertation or otherwise attribute the passages to their original source. We hereby retract the article and apologise to Dr Scheie for this infringement. The article has been withdrawn from the online version of the journal.

In an attempt to distinguish themselves from the increasing proliferation of like projects, some theories, training programmes, productions, sub-disciplines and the like project a kinship with already authoritative voices. This artificial association characterizes the inevitably ‘intercultural’ product not simply as another element in the postmodern mix, but as a truth validated by tradition and transcending the limits of cultural fads. Richard Schechner's self-styled ‘rasaesthetics’ seeks to associate itself with the rasa concept of classical Sanskrit theory. But rasa and ‘rasaesthetics’ have little in common, and Schechner's attempt to project their kinship requires misunderstandings of theatre in India and in the West. Ultimately, ‘rasaesthetics’ is an example of a tendency in dramatic theory not to try to explain phenomena but to try to legitimize practices.

While there are Chinese-American dimensions to Ping Chong's theatre, the frequent application of the label ‘Asian-American’ to Chong reflects a problematic tendency to see certain artists as ‘ethnic’. ‘Postmodern’ and ‘multimedia’ are the two other labels that stick to, and have often distorted, his work. My overview of Ping Chong's oeuvre, and its critical reception, homes in on selected Chong pieces and on particular critical habits. While there are many continuities and discontinuities within a career spanning fifty pieces and three decades, I suggest that Chong oscillates, both visually and thematically, between surface and depth, like the Barthesian ‘outsider within’ who partly inhabits/partly mythologizes the culture(s) they encounter, and who is always changing. There is a need for greater recognition of the distinctiveness of Chong's authorial signature, the multiplicity of his influences, and the ways in which his work challenges the narratives and categories used to study performance.