Learning
How
To
Die
This is a show about death.
It’s not a show about being sad. Or about grief. Or pity. This is a show about the actuality of dying and how an acceptance of mortality can drive a passion for life.
CREATIVE TEAM
Written and performed by Luca Rutherford
Directed by Iain Bloomfield
Script advisor Chris Thorpe
Co-commissioned by ARC and Ovalhouse
Produced by ARC
Learning How To Die asks what scares us about dying, and how can we use that fear to drive our living actions. Can we stop being scared of talking about dying? Can we find new ways to talk about death now, not just when we are faced with it, or have to deal with someone else’s? It won’t make it any less painful but it might just make things easier.
Join Luca in Learning How to Die and it might just change the way you live.
Luca is not afraid of talking about dying,
she hopes by the end of it you won’t be either .
“Luca Rutherford’s one-woman show about understanding and accepting death exposes the raw, throbbing nerve of these interactions… painted with the kind of gentle humour which fills us with both heartache and awe.”
— NARC magazine
“Here is someone who wants all of life to feel like a funeral, but “without the pain and suffering”, only that sense that the people around us and the things we do are so, so important.”
— Exeunt
“One admires Rutherford not only for the bravery it takes to confront an audience with controversial issues, but also her ability to offer up her perspective with a quiet and convincing conviction.”
— Everything Theatre
SUPPORTED BY
Co-commissioned by ARC Stockton and Ovalhouse with development support from Northern Stage through the North East Artist Development Network.
Photography by Camilla Greenwell
WHEN
Learning How To Die toured in 2016 and 2017 and is currently being turned into a piece for radio.