Abstract

Oscillating between being ‘within’ and ‘without’ a performative experience, Phillip Zarrilli’s chapter details the ways in which performance, as necessarily embodied and perceived, makes manifest some of the better-known tenets of phenomenological thinking. In particular, he illuminates the way in which a performance event underscores the prevalence of the bodymind, and even more explicitly, a Heideggerian ‘thrownness’. The chapter further touches upon many of the key phenomenological tropes that are highlighted early and often in the book, especially a desire to be precise and rigorous in terms of articulating what phenomenology is and what it does, specifically with respect to the study of theatre and performance.