THE DEATH SHOW

Brought together by a shared fear of death, Birmingham based artists Lucy Nicholls and Antonia Beck present their latest production ‘The Death Show’.

Created in response to a provocative and unashamedly honest dialogue about death, ‘The Death Show’ looks to better understand society’s relationship with death and dying, and why we struggle to accept our own mortality. It is both a personal view of the subject matter, and an exploration of how we as a society can have better conversations about death and dying. 

As part of the research and development for the show, the artists embarked on an in-depth research journey which included taking part in a celebrant training course, being artists in residence at an independent funeral directors, spending time with patients at a hospice and having numerous conversations with death and end of life care professionals as well as the general public about death and dying. 

‘The Death Show’ is their response to that journey, presented as a live, contemporary performance that is funny, surreal, reflective, honest (and references a good dose of pop culture). Despite their mutual ‘thanataphobia’, Lucy and Antonia don’t believe that death should be seen as morbid, macabre, weird, disturbing, melancholic or most importantly unmentionable.

They said: “Through this project we realised how important and necessary it is for us as individuals and as a society to talk about death. It shouldn’t be a subject matter that is discussed in whispers; talking about death can be incredibly life affirming. With The Death Show, we hope that people will take up our invitation to come together to celebrate their own mortality, maybe laugh, maybe cry and ultimately bring death out of the shadows and into the light.”