Theatre and Autobiography is a comparison between theorists including Deleuze, Bhabha, Elin Diamond, and Philippe Lejeune, and playwrights including Yeats, Beckett, Karen Finley, Linda Griffiths Orlan, R.H. Thomson, Monique Mojica, and George Seremba, and the reasons for and implications of each side of thought to the reading public.

Sherrill Grace and Jerry Wasserman analyze the fascination with autobiography and come to the conclusion that the allure of that particular type of writing is the desire to get inside the skin of those we read about, perhaps in the hope of making our own drab little lives a bit more interesting by vicariously perusing more accomplished and famous people in their natural habitat. However, as the authors point out, autobiographies are only as enlightening as the subjects wish them to be. Those readers looking for the real person beneath the persona should observe the saying caveat emptor.

At times, Theatre and Autobiography bogs down a bit for those not accustomed to reading theorists, but those who are diehard fans of the genre will find the book thought-provoking.