Talk of the Town - True Crime, Death and the Live Body

Podcasts, documentaries and long-form ‘based on a true story’ series have turned death into narrative: something we follow, analyse and consume – at a distance. 

Facilitated by celebrant and funeral director, Jordan Kadell, this conversation explores how contemporary theatre and dance artists are responding to our fascination with death – and what changes when these ideas are translated into live experience.

Why are we so drawn to stories of death and what happens when these stories shift from private consumption to a shared, live space? When death is no longer mediated, but present? When the body in front of us becomes the site of memory, ritual and reckoning? How do audiences sit with death when it’s present, immediate and unfolding in front of them and does a different kind of empathy that emerges in the context of live performance? What becomes possible when we acknowledge that death belongs to all of us?

Featuring artists working at the intersection of dance-theatre and contemporary performance, including Attic Projects' Luke Murphy ( Scorched Earth), The Farms' Gavin Webber ( No-One Gets Out Of Here Alive) and Merlynn Tong ( Legends of the Golden Arches).