Theatre and the Threshold of Death

On the eve of a global pandemic Kathleen Gough a theatre professor becomes immersed in the lives of five artist-mystics each of whom is a pioneer in her field: <b>Hildegard of Bingen</b> (1098-1179) the first known musical composer; <b>Eleanora Duse</b> (1858-1924) the first modern actor in the Western world; <b>Simone Weil</b> (1909-1943) philosopher activist and mystic whom Albert Camus called the only great spirit of our time; <b>Marina Abramovic</b>(b. 1946) the grandmother of performance art; and <b>Hilma af Klint</b> (1862-1944) the first known (and belatedly acknowledged) abstract painter. Each time Gough crosses a threshold into their world she is compelled to attend courses seminars and workshops that are simultaneously about dying and healing.<br/>Curious to learn more about the relationships between art practice dying and healing Gough imagines the five artists as wisdom teachers in a mystery school. In a series of eight lectures she turns to performance theory to provide a framework for engaging with the unknown world. In <i>Theatre and the Threshold of Death</i> Gough makes a persuasive argument for the world-making power of relational thinking in our increasingly polarized age.<br/><b></b>