Acting After Grotowski: Theatre’s Carnal Prayer. By Kris Salata. London: Routledge, 2020; 150 pp.; illustrations. $128.00 cloth, $39.16 paper, e-book available.

To some, the subtitle may sound intriguing; to others, odd, if not extravagant; to others still, preposterous, sensationalist, even off-putting. Salata is quick to point out that the baffling concept of the carnal prayer comes from Grotowski. Grotowski first used this term (in Polish, “modlitwa zmysłów”; literally, “a prayer of the senses”) in 1990 while discussing Ryszard Cieślak’s legendary performance in the Laboratory Theatre’s production of The Constant Prince (1965–70). It is Salata’s argument that Grotowski’s notion of the carnal prayer, along with his idea of the secure partner, described in Towards a Poor Theatre (1968) as a sort of virtual entity that demands from an actor a complete self-revelatory act, “provides a unique insight into his theory of acting as well as an opportunity to discuss the intersection of performance and religion” (xi). Read in relation to one another, the two concepts — the carnal prayer and the secure partner — push our understanding of Grotowski’s work forward in critical and ambitious ways.