The emergence of these two books at the same time suggests a certain theoretical zeitgeist and thus invites reading them alongside each other. A sustained investigation of the concept of presence in theatre and performance has been long overdue, and these books approach the issue in very different but complementary ways. Both utilize examples from a wide variety of performance traditions and methodologies, seeking to stabilize a discussion of what has frequently been viewed as a ‘mysterious attribute’ akin to the ‘regal and the divine’ (Goodall, pp. 7 and 11), without losing the power to question, especially since ‘theatre affirms its presence by making “presence” enigmatic’ (Power, p. 14, original emphasis). What comes across is the delicate character of this notion: rooted in a vague mysticism, never clearly brought to the fore of thought, it becomes at once enticing and unnerving.

It is Goodall who best locates presence at the cusp of modern thought; situated on the edge of an ancient darkness and an illumined modernity keen for fame and celebrity. As she states, presence has a ‘tendency to slippage, from the registers of social impact to those that carry resonances of the uncanny and spiritual’ (p. 158). Power's project is clearly more overtly rooted in theory. He seeks to ground presence, ‘seen as that which lies outside of representation’ (p. 8), in an approachable conceptual framework which will enable its paradoxical character to be meaningfully applied to theatre. He offers six chapters which fall, roughly, into two halves. The first three provide a condensed exploration of existing theories of fictional, auratic and literal modes of presence; here, Power covers much ground, synthesizing diverse theoretical work with helpful examples. He also underlines the necessity to bear these three modes in mind during the rest of the book, where they blend more forcefully into an analysis of presence in relation to particular readings of Derrida, the debates on ‘liveness’, and phenomenological approaches to signification. Here, the issue of technology comes to the fore as one of the central problematics of the nature of stage presence. In the last chapter, ‘Signifying Presence’, Power puts forward a strong argument for the political power of presence, concluding with a tantalizing section on ‘The Magic of Theatre’: he highlights the power of the stage as an environment of ‘appearance and disappearance’ (p. 201), an ‘undecided field of potential’ (p. 206) that challenges established perceptions and even consciousness.

A sense of ‘magic’ infuses Goodall's book throughout, with five atmospherically titled chapters: ‘The Supreme Attribute’, ‘Drawing Power’, ‘Mesmerism’, ‘Dash and Flash’ and ‘Being Present’. Her study engages with the ‘spiritual’ aspect of presence as it figures large within the Judaeo-Christian social roots of Western performance. She begins by attempting to understand ‘charisma’ and the enigmatic quality of ‘stardom’ in figures as varied as Nijinsky, Grotowski and Hitler. She then moves back and forth through periods (although there is a chronologically forward momentum), examining physicality and genius, before addressing issues of magnetism and mesmerism, and the inevitable occult background to the ‘power’ of performance. The nerve-tingling aura of the individual then gives way to the razzamatazz of the ‘star-effects produced by modern technology’ (p. 122).

Goodall, too, evokes something of that paradoxical ‘appearance and disappearance’ of theatrical presence. At one point she asks, in relation to the actor, ‘Is this how it feels to be a ghost?’ (p. 170). Perhaps it is – between places, neither one thing nor the other. It is this dual quality of presence, of fear and fascination, that she excels in evoking. Both books are excellent in themselves, offering new perspectives and clarification of a term which is frequently assumed to be understood because of its familiarity. Each makes presence appear in a new light, and each sheds further light on the other.