This is a performative writing essay that reflects on Peggy Phelan’s thesis from Mourning Sex that theatre is a rehearsal for death. Using the Freudian frame of da (there) and fort (gone), the essay moves between presence and absence, between aesthetic performances and everyday performances, and between life and death.
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References
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Albee, E. (1997). A delicate balance: A play. New York: Plume.
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Dillard, A. (1998). The writing life. New York: HarperCollins.
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Ignatow, D. (1964). Two friends. In Figures of the human. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
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Phelan, P. (1997). Mourning sex: Performing public memories. Boston: Routledge.
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Shea, T. (1997). Scratched into the tree of original sin’s bark. American Poetry Review, 26, 45.
