Cormac Power

I have a wide range of research interests within the areas of performance studies and performance theory. I have published on areas such as performance and presence, performance and philosophy, performance and failure, performance and theology. The topics I have written about are quite broad, from Christian ecological saints to the contemporary British playwright debbie tucker green. My overarching aim is to explore how different forms of performance expand our awareness of the world in different ways, inviting us to reflect upon existential and spiritual questions.

To date I have completed two monograohs on Theatre and Performance:

Presence in Play: A Critique of Theories of Presence in the Theatre (Rodopi 2008),

Stoicism and Performance: A Joyful Materialism (Brill 2019).

I am currently in the early stages of working on a third monograph whose provisional title is Performance and Faith: A feeling for the Ordinary (Palgrave expected 2028).

My most recent publication is an article that explores representations of the Catholic mass in two sharply contrasting examples:

Power, C. (2023). ‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood’ Real presence and personhood in Midnight Mass and Lips of Thomas. Performance Research, 28(1), 55-61.

Later this year, the following article will be published in the journal Performance, Religion and Spirituality: “Contemplation in Action: The Meditation as performance.” This article argues that Marcus Aurelius’ text the Meditations can be read as a kind of philosophical performance manual.