This is one of the most important contributions in Plautine studies since Erich Segal's "Roman Laughter". A close reading of six "plays about play-making" (Epidicus, Persa, Asinaria, Casina, Bacchides, Pseudolus), the book closes down on the cardinal Plautine figure of the servus callidus as the conductor and master-puppeteer of the playworld. This is a book with a thesis: that Plautine theatre is non-mimetic, non-illusory, non-realistic; that, inasmuch as it imitates not life but previous text, it is metatheatrical and intertextual at the outmost. This is not exactly a polemical position- the world had suspected before that this might be the Plautine stamp- but it is certainly the most eloquent demonstration of the multi-layered polyvalence of Plautus' stage. Erich Segal's earlier wish, that Plautus would start being treated not as book for reading but as script for performance, is gloriously vindicated here by Slater. Disadvantages? In a sense, of course: this is a book with a special focus, not a general exposition (if one is looking for one, I would suggest Anderson's "Barbarian Play" or Moore's "The theatre of Plautus"). On the other hand, having a point to make, Slater sometimes overstates his case: for instance, the thesis that in the "Persa" the pimp Dordalus represents the "world of tragedy" (p.53) is one example of such overdrawn conclusions. But not many of those are to be found. Throughout the book, Slater offers specimens of sophisticated performance analysis (with excellent comments on music, mask, costume, props and all the other determinants). The book should perhaps be read in juxtaposition with Slater's newly published volume on Aristophanes.