Liminality and ritual in dramatherapy : the intersubjective space

‘Theatre’ is a word which describes what can be seen in a performance space, including an empty stage suggesting an ‘active absence’ as well as performativity. The space can also be a liminal one where the audience experiences flashes of recognition as in Hamlet's play within the play. ‘Aha moments’ are not always of the guilty secret variety that Shakespeare wanted to emphasize there, but sometimes of really inspired vision. They can give us a soul sense which connects us more easily with a way of perceiving the world around us. These moments wake us up, freeing us from unconsciousness and allowing us to renew the unfinished past in the light of the present moment, changing our biography. Dramatherapy offers an intersubjective space where therapist and client can build a ritualized enclosure, a play space where mysteries can be explored and in-between openings encountered. In the Covid-19 era, the enclosures can be as limited as small, rectangular spaces on a computer screen. This chapter explores the choices of spaces for sessional dramatherapy with a range of clients and supervisees, connecting them with the possibilities for liminal space to occur. Encounters with adult clients from private practice as well as people with dementia from a doctoral research project are presented here. They demonstrate that dramatherapy interventions, given preparatory thought and reflection, can result in a process where unexpected awakenings can be embodied, experienced and later processed.