In Modernist and Avant-Garde Performance, Claire Warden has provided a student-focused and interactive volume that unpacks a significant moment in performance history. Warden's aim is to introduce students to the multivalent and challenging world of modernist and avant-garde performance, clarifying discourses around definitions and movements, to engage the reader whilst preserving the complexity of the topic as understood in recent scholarship. Central is Warden's desire to challenge the barrier between the latest developments in the fields of modernism and performance studies, ‘smashing through the suspicion that often defines this relationship’ (p. 17). Combining historical and social contextualization with detailed discussions of key movements, the volume deals with a broad scope of performative iterations of the modernist avant-garde, from the work of Maeterlinck and Yeats to Tzara, Marinetti, Apollinaire and Artaud. The emphasis is practical, including a series of prompts that encourage an embodied engagement with the material.

Warden begins with a clear and comprehensive introduction to the terminological and historiographic concerns associated with modernism and the avant-garde. This is a helpful navigation of the field, suitably constructed for her target audience. The book then proceeds to a series of thematic chapters, addressing, for example, the conventions of modernist performance (chapter 1), politics and performance (chapter 3), and the modernist body (chapter 4). This choice of a thematic, rather than chronological, structure is a useful one, and chimes well with the definitions of modernism and the avant-garde offered in the introduction. The clear focus of each chapter also increases the book's flexibility for use in a teaching context: it would be possible to use the whole volume, encouraging cross-referencing of significant ideas across chapters, or to allow chapters to stand alone. Each chapter encourages students to see the performative nature of the modernist avant-garde, and to identify the potential resonances between these historical practices and their own worlds. The conclusion reinforces this approach by addressing descendants of the modernist and avant-garde traditions, with Warden drawing on a wide range of examples including Kantor, Brook, Grotowski, Bausch and Churchill.

Warden addresses an important field, and her book is a significant resource for anyone wanting to include modernist or avant-garde performance on an undergraduate programme. The scope of the volume is impressive, and Warden has made some effort to break down the image of the stereotypical ‘white male’ avant-garde practitioner of the period by nodding to the diversity, both geographical and social, of these performance-makers. References are also made to the ‘troublesome politics’ of some avant-garde practice (p. 66), including the fascism associated with the Italian Futurists, as well as the potential misogyny of some texts (such as Strindberg's infamous ‘Preface’ to Miss Julie), and the often problematic inclusion of non-Western forms in avant-garde aesthetics. The restrictions of space, and the need to include the canon as well as lesser-known examples in light of the target audience, mean that issues around misogyny and imperialism cannot be handled in as much depth as they really warrant; however, Warden's consistent signposting of these problems is valuable and should provide prompts for further exploration within a classroom setting.

Warden's conversational tone makes difficult and complex ideas accessible, and the emphasis on practice and the student's interaction with the field (through research, viewing and uploading material) is a valuable feature. This is augmented by a structure that forefronts the performative aspects of the movements and allows the reader to engage intellectually and physically with a performance history that is visceral in its impact. The practical exercises are relevant and focused, expanding the experience of each chapter beyond the page. Arguably, the greatest attribute of this book, then, is its utility, providing a practical, performative and much-needed introduction to modernism and the avant-garde.