Theatre and the Macabre

A selection of essays by scholars from around the world on the macabre in theater and performance.

This book brings together a number of essays on the macabre in the theater and in performance. A dozen scholars from all over the world explore instances of the macabre being performed, from theatrical apparitions and severed heads on stage to dark tourism and dwelling upon the assassination of President Lincoln in Ford's Theatre, from sideshows to Halloween haunts. Why, they ask, have audiences long been drawn to artificial images of death, pain, and violence, when they would be repulsed by the real thing? Offering an in-depth examination of the appeal of the macabre, the contributors invite us to look at its prominence in the history of theater anew.