`I am not at all sure what great acting is and yet, when seen, it is instantly recogisable.' - Alec Guinness What is acting? Everyone seems to be able to act when required. It seems to be the easiest of arts; if an art at all. Yet how is it that we can distinguish good acting from bad. John Harrop examines how we think and speak about acting. Addressing himself to the intellectual problems associated with the idea of acting, it covers the range of actor training and practice from Stanislavski to the Post-Modern, and looks at the spiritual and moral purposes of acting within society: its danger and self-sacrifice.