A Dead body wanted on stage for a theatre production in May!

A Dead body wanted on stage for a theatre production in May!

Experimental company 1157performancegroup, are wanting a dead body to appear on stage for their London theatre production in May.

A terminally-ill person is being sought to star in Dead: You Will Be, which aims to challenge taboos surrounding death. The group has written to hospices across the UK in the hope a patient will agree to donate their body. An embalmer has been consulted on the best way to preserve the body for the full 24-night run.

Jo Dagless, one of the group's artistic directors, told the BBC that having a dead body was fundamental to the performance which explores the modern-day taboos surrounding death and dying in modern Western cultures. She said: "It is about a kind of contact with death that is more than just a philosophical and conceptual experience. "Death is something we all inevitably have to face. "We are really trying to dispel the myths around death."

The body will not necessarily be touched by the actors at all,' said Jo Dagless to The Observer Newspaper 'But all those details would be worked out in advance with the donor and with their family.'

Dead: You Will Be is due to begin on 11 May at Space 44, in east London.


Originally published on

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