"Paul Corey examines how theatre - which expressed a key political dynamic both in the Renaissance and the twentieth century - lays open the impulses that instigated modernity and, ultimately, unparalleled levels of violence and destruction. Starting with Albert Camus's Caligula and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, then turning to Machiavelli's Mandragola and Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Corey traces the emergence of two dominant, intertwining features of modern evil: an unrestrained pursuit of power and the utopian desire for perfection." --p. [4] Cover