Pain is at the root of most drama and entertainment. When does it get too real? This very disturbing and graphic show looks into some case studies and asks some deep questions. WARNING: Very intense subject matter.

Dan’s research and book list

1. The Lure of the Arena: Social Psychology and the Crowd at the Roman Games by Garrett G. Fagan
2. The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People 1770-1868 by V. A. C. [Vic] Gatrell
3. Seeing Justice Done: The Age of Spectacular Capital Punishment in France by Paul Friedland
4. The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century by Joel F. Harrington
5. Rituals of Retribution: Capital Punishment in Germany, 1600-1987 by Richard J. Evans
6. Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940 by Amy Louise Wood
7. Lynching in America: A History in Documents by Christopher Waldrep
8. Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome (Approaching the Ancient World) by Donald G. Kyle
9. Theatre of Horror: Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Germany by Richard Van Dulmen and Elisabeth Neu
10. The Spectacle of Suffering: Executions and the Evolution of Repression: From a Preindustrial metropolis to the European Experience by Pieter Spierenburg
11. Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776-1865 by Louis P. Masur
12. Until You Are Dead: The Book of Executions in America by Frederick Drimmer
13. Dark Justice: The History of Punishment and Torture by Karen Farrington
14. Public Executions: From Ancient Rome to the Present Day by Nigel Cawthorne
15. Witnesses to the Scaffold: English Literary Figures As Observers of Public Executions: Pierce Egan, Thackeray, Dickens, Alexander Smith, G. A. Sala, Orwell by Antony E. Simpson