Liminality, longing, love: the reflections of in-between times and liminal personae

Abstract

As we head towards the end of 2021 and areas in Australia set to break world records for most days spent in hard lockdown (Bond, 2021), it has been sobering to realise the whole world has now discovered liminality (Wayland, 2021). The liminal space is one that has long fascinated theatre practitioners, artists, philosophers and researchers. The liminal space is a space of transition, of being on the threshold, in-between, a space of disruption and uncertainty, a space of possibility. These spaces and states of intrigue and tension are ones we play with in drama and theatre, dancing between the real and imagine, the ‘real’ and the fictional, the embodied, the virtual, the here and now and the not yet realised. For good or ill, many of us have now become what Victor Turner – whose seminal work has often been drawn upon by drama researchers – called, ‘liminal personae’: