The international reputation of Catalan theatre has been built largely on the innovative methods of performance groups such as Els Joglars and La Fura dels Baus. The dominance of spectacles based on collective creation, physicality and carnival has tended to obscure the development of inventive modes of text-based theatre in Catalonia (and the rest of Spain). Sergi Belbel, as a playwright with an international reputation, as collaborator with Ventura Pons on successful cinematic adaptations, as an influential director who champions respect for the theatrical text, and as head of Catalonia's flagship theatrical institution, is the person who has done most to redress the balance. David George's persuasive, timely study provides a clear picture of the full range of Belbel's activities and makes a judicious assessment of his impact in Catalonia, Spain and beyond.

The introductory chapter usefully summarizes the context within which Belbel began his career in the mid-1980s. Although I feel that the extent to which ‘social realism’ had been ‘de rigueur in Spanish and Catalan playwriting’ (p. 1) is overstated, George situates Belbel concisely in relation to Sanchis Sinisterra, Benet i Jornet, the ‘Bradomín Generation’ and developments further afield in European theatre. Chapter 1 discusses Belbel's plays, emphasizing diversity of form, metatheatricality, disconcerting shifts of register and mixing the comic and the serious. The apology for focusing here on ‘the play as literary text rather than on performance’ (p. 10) is unnecessarily self-deprecating, since the analysis is exemplary in the attention it pays to the performance potential of the texts. The decision to provide succinct synopses of the plays in an appendix facilitates an agile survey of theatrical techniques and thematic concerns. Belbel's work comes across vividly as a process of experimentation with ways of challenging and engaging audiences, as well as a thought-provoking exploration of philosophical and social issues.

Chapter 2 describes Belbel's meticulous, democratic practice as a director and lucidly analyses landmark productions. Evidence from interviews with people who have worked with Belbel is put to good use, though the chapter would have benefited from stronger links between its first part (on methods) and its second (on productions). While it is interesting to read about Belbel's thoughtful handling of Guimerà, Shakespeare and others, it is a shame that only one production of one of his own plays is discussed in detail. Similarly, chapter 4 (dealing with the mixed critical reception of Belbel's plays) looks at only one of his own productions: stronger links between this discussion and the earlier account of Belbel's work as a director would have given the book greater coherence. Chapter 3 analyses the cinematic adaptations on which Belbel has collaborated with Pons, particularly Forasters. The reinforcing of sexual and racial otherness in this adaptation is brought out skilfully, though more detailed attention could have been paid to cinematic technique. Finally, the chapter on Belbel's record as head of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (TNC) is very useful in showing how he has largely succeeded in reducing the subservience of the TNC to the Catalan nationalist agenda and striking a sensible balance in its programming.

Although I have expressed some reservations about the detailed organization of the book, it generally achieves its admirable aim of capturing the multidimensional nature of Belbel's career. Along the way, it makes some fascinating observations about relationships between playwriting and directing, theatrical and cinematic languages, and nationalism and cultural policy.