In her 1978 book Illness as Metaphor, Susan Sontag sets out to diagnose the problem with the way we think about illness. Her discovery was not to focus on sickness itself, but the language surrounding disease - language that can, in her view, quite literally kill. 

Working with six participants living with long-term illness, Dead Centre adapt this groundbreaking text for the theatre, which is itself a metaphoric space. So, if all the world’s a stage, how can theatre deal with reality?

Perhaps, through inviting in some real people, theatre can be re-invented as a place where we might live, and die, without metaphor.

After all, the one thing you can’t do on stage is pretend your body isn’t there.

Illness as Metaphor premiered on September 8th 2024, at Project Arts Centre as part of Dublin Fringe Festival.

Stage Design ELLEN KIRK
Video Design KILIAN WATERS
Lighting Design STEPHEN DODD
Sound Design and Composition KEVIN GLEESON
Costume Design MAE LEAHY

Text by DEAD CENTRE AND THE CAST
Producer TILLY TAYLOR
Directors BUSH MOUKARZEL & BEN KIDD

IMAGES by José Miguel Jimenéz and Simon Lazewski