ABSTRACT
The photograph on the front cover of this book is taken by Paula Court of Frank Dell’s
The Temptation of St. Antony, which was first staged by The Wooster Group in 1987.
It captures a beautiful and humorous moment that occurs towards the end of the
penultimate episode in which the character of Frank Dell (played by Ron Vawter)
attempts to stage a death defying escape routine as part of a hastily arranged magic
show.At the start of this scene the stage is filled with smoke.The performers, seem-
improvised dances or by desperately rushing around the stage as if involved in the
and physical disintegration.At the center of this photograph, we see the raised body
(a dummy in a white shroud), held in place by a silhouetted performer (Kate Valk),
apparently frozen in response to the mesmerizing hands of Frank Dell. Something in
evokes the potential for a theatrical event to transcend the ordinary — that a trans-
formative act might occur before us, that the living be induced into a state of death
and then be brought back to life.Yet, at the same time, behind the illusionary appear-
ance of things, we can see that theater is little more than an elaborate arrangement
of barely hidden ropes, sleights of hands and a series of tricks. It is all a sham.
