Purgatory as Explored in Live Theatre Spaces

This article discusses how the idea of Purgatory is explored in three stage plays: Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, Peter Tarsi’s one-act play, Tracks, and contemporary musical, Ride the Cyclone. All three plays take place in a version of Purgatory that shows characters interacting with both space and the other people in the space. Reading the plays in connection with Edward Soja’s theory of Thirdspace and Stanley Vincent Longman’s “The Spatial Dimension of Theatre,” the author examines how the liminal Thirdspace of live theatre helps audiences grapple with the concept of Purgatory.