Death in Modern Theatre: Stages of Mortality by Adrian Curtin (review)

Discussions about the so-called ontology of performance typically concern the paired ideas of presence and disappearance, recording technologies and documentation, trace and memory—all of which posit in some way the living, breathing body of an actor often co-present with those in the audience. To d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Theatre journal (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2021-09, Vol.73 (3), p.445-446
Main Author: Walker, Julia A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Beckett, Samuel (1906-1989)
Death & dying
Dramatists
Duras, Marguerite (1914-1996)
Ionesco, Eugene (1912-1994)
Lee, Vernon (1856-1935)
Mortality
Ontology
Stimulation
Theater
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Summary:Discussions about the so-called ontology of performance typically concern the paired ideas of presence and disappearance, recording technologies and documentation, trace and memory—all of which posit in some way the living, breathing body of an actor often co-present with those in the audience. To do that, they cultivated a charged atmosphere of heightened sensory stimulation, using color, light, sound, and even scent to suffuse the space of the audience and blur its distinction from the fictional world of the stage. Curtin discusses the implied catastrophes that shape the dystopian worlds of Samuel Beckett's Endgame and Happy Days, and Marguerite Duras's Yes, Maybe, noting the trauma that survivors of such "death events" experience in his consideration of Edward Bond's The Tin Can People, Józef Szajna's Replica, and Howard Barker's Found in the Ground.
ISSN:0192-2882
1086-332X
1086-332X
DOI:10.1353/tj.2021.0094