Performative theatre is one of the most important trends of our time. It is emblematic of the work of many European theatrical artists in the early twenty-first century.

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 The human journey. Odyssey by Robert Wilson. CHAPTER 2 A journey into mind and brain. From Je suis un phénomène to The Valley of Astonishment by Peter Brook. CHAPTER 3 Upending tradition: Christ and Aeschylus irrelevant? Romeo Castellucci's Orestea and Sul concetto di volto nel figlio di Dio. CHAPTER 4 Christ's legacy: Golgota Picnic by Rodrigo Garcia: starting again from man or drowning in nothingness? CHAPTER 5 Anna Castoldi and Francesco Marzano: How to live together? From militarism and authoritarianism to the weapon of joy in Gaudeamus by Lev Dodin. CHAPTER 6 A school of democracy for an ever-changing identity: The Blind Poet by Jan Lauwers and Ça ira by Joël Pommerat. CHAPTER 7 Migration, artificiality and the city on the axis of time: Bodenprobe Kazachstan and Remote X (Remote Milano) by Rimini Protokoll. CHAPTER 8 Oh What a Lovely War by Joan Littlewood: The prophecy of a pioneer artist. CHAPTER 9 The body's dignity regained: MDLSX by Enrico Casagrande, Daniela Nicolò and Silvia Calderoni (Motos) and Bestie di scena by Emma Dante. CHAPTER 10 The beautiful and the true: from Orchidee to Vangelo, the salvational itinerary of Pippo Delbono. PHOTOS