After Live

This book offers an insightful exploration of live events and their role in shaping encounters with the future, particularly through theater. After Live examines various artistic forms.

This book delves into the realm of live events, including theater, dance, and installation art, exploring how they create encounters between the present and an uncertain future. It begins in the moment before a performance, where the theater holds a multitude of possibilities waiting to unfold. The author poses thought-provoking questions regarding how a performance can maintain this sense of potentiality and what kinds of futures can emerge within its confines.

After Live positions the theater as a cultural institution that experiments with future possibilities. It traverses various artistic forms, including literature, dance, sculpture, and performance art, to investigate the diverse futures that can be shaped through live events. By examining the dramatic stage, the book contemplates how these performances can not only tame the future but also reveal its unpredictable nature.

The chapters provide insights into the works of notable playwrights such as Beckett, Churchill, Eno, and Gombrowicz, alongside an in-depth analysis of the innovative Italian director Romeo Castellucci. Additionally, the text offers fresh perspectives on minimalist sculpture and dance, highlighting how audiences are invited to engage and perform in response to the artwork they encounter. Overall, After Live presents a compelling examination of the interplay between live performance and the concept of futurity.