I don’t know why a book – and one that has been ‘completely revised’ for its second edition – about one of the world’s more interesting (dare we say exciting) recent cultural developments – the progress of Australian drama from the nineteen fifties to the present –should be so standardised as to read like a school text-book. But I suppose that’s where the answer lies: it’s like a text book because that’s the market.

Playwrights arc ‘mainstreamed’ along conventional lines with chapters earmarked and a neat intro to show where they fit into the picture. It’s a reference book – a kind of encyclopedia of 15 Australian playwrights – chronologically arranged so that essay and exam topics can be conveniently sought and answered.