OUTSIDE THE BOX – A LIVE SHOW ABOUT DEATH
Liz is a performer, celebrant and award winning burial ground owner. Her unique insights and experiences have created a highly original and beautifully cathartic show, combining mercurial tales and miraculous truths, collected over the years from life’s finishing line.
Funny, wise and taboo busting; Outside The Box confronts the ‘Elephant in the room’ with grace and humour, asking its audience to embrace mortality and look on the bright side of life, with a weave of untold and surprising stories, a hint of history and some pithy commentary on the funeral industry (from one who knows!).
I loved this show! I can’t think of anything quite like it. Liz manages to talk about something that affects us all, but we never talk about. She makes it both every day and profound, and moves us to laughter and tears. She also empowers us, not in a wishy washy way, but with real concrete recipes for action. It’s a really useful show. She could be the Mary Berry of death!
Mike KenneyBook here for the last ever live shows!
Outside the Box first opened at the Brighton Festival in 2016 before going to the Edinburgh Festival. It has since appeared in theatres, universities, hospice, medical schools, fields, community centres, bookshops, art galleries, museums, private homes and village halls. It has also been performed in the US. It is now approaching its centennial performance. And it is time to stop!
Each night a different expert will join Liz on stage for the Q&A with the audience. Their presence widens the scope of what can be explored after the performance.
Wednesday 18th March with Rose-Anne O’Hare
Rose-Anne O’Hare is a retired NHS therapist and now leads bereavement groups and cafes and one-to-one bereavement counselling. She has a keen interest in the profound and often life-changing effects of grief, and how we deal with bereavement in our society, as well as our reluctance to talk about death and dying. Her experience over the last 25 years has shown that grief is far more complex and long-lasting than many of us know. It remains misunderstood by many because of a lack of education and a reluctance to talk about it. This is why she wants to help open up conversations about grief and death.
Thursday 19th March with Wendy Halford
Wendy is a former Registered Nurse who trained as a Soul Midwife in 2013. She facilitates workshops in death literacy, The Lost Art of Simple Dying. Participants learn about the dying process, enabling them to support others with more confidence. They’re also encouraged to start conversations around death and dying in their own circles, including what may be important in relation to their own eventual deaths. Her favourite feedback includes words like, “You make it all sound so normal!” In 2023 she was part of the organising committee for Kicking the Bucket, a festival of living and dying, in Oxford.
Friday 20th March – TBC
On the last performance the show and Q&A will be filmed to create a resource for the future for opening conversations about death and dying and providing training and education. See Film tab for more information about this.
“A remarkably refreshing and important show, gently dancing on the line between playful irreverence and necessary solemnity” Broadway Baby, Edinburgh Festival 2016
“I’d like to see it performed in every Fringe Festival and every village hall in the UK!” Zelah Senior, Brighton Fringe 2016
“Incredibly uplifting and often very funny…delivered to the audience with compassion and understanding.” Swindon Advertiser
“A poetic and gently humorous performance that dispels our misunderstandings about the etiquette around death and reveals the possibilities and alternatives to convention and ritual, that may no longer feel true to our own lives and those we love. All those who work in Palliative Care should see this AND so should all those who don’t. Put it on your bucket list now.” Dr Anna Hume, Hospice Doctor
First day of rehearsals
Any questions?
Get in touch with Liz using the website contact form.