The Cambridge Companion to the Circus provides a complete guide for students, scholars, teachers, researchers, and practitioners who are seeking perspectives on the foundations and evolution of the modern circus, the contemporary extent of circus studies, and the specialised literature available to support further enquiries. The volume brings together an international group of established and emerging scholars working across the multi-disciplinary domain of circus studies to present a clear overview of the specialised histories, aesthetics and distinctive performances of the modern circus. In sixteen commissioned essays, it covers the origins in commercial equestrian performance during the late-eighteenth century to contemporary inflections of circus arts in major international festivals, educational environments, and social justice settings.

'This structured collection of essays is a solid introduction to the circus itself and a substantial exploration of this growing area of academic studies … This is a worthy and informative addition to the field of circus studies, with potential as an introductory textbook, as a reference source, and for fieldwork … Recommended.' W. L. Svitavsky, Choice Connect

Gillian Arrighi is Associate Professor in the School of Creative Industries at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is a member of the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA) and the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR). She has held visiting fellowships at the Ransom Centre for the Humanities (UTexas, Austin), the Harvard Theatre Collection, and the National Library of Australia. Jim Davis is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick. He is the author of Comic Acting and Portraiture in Late-Georgian and Regency England (CUP, 2015), which won the David Bradby Prize for International Theatre Research. He is also an editor of Nineteenth-Century Theatre and Film.