This seminar examines the relations and tensions between religion and secularism in the theatre. Most of the course will be dedicated to theatre works that were created within the modern secularized context and which are directly based on religious texts, scriptures, and rituals of the Western culture. In order to examine the modern examples, we will first study late medieval plays and performances which were created within a religious cultural context. We will see how the medieval religious theatre explored and expressed secular daily issues whereas modern works which intentionally challenge religious dogmas often turn out to reinstitute those very notions. The topics of the seminar include representations of God in the theatre, the ‘Other’ and the sacrificial figure in the theatre, pain and suffering in performance, identity politics in theatre based on religious sources, holiness and profanation in theatre, and more. We will watch excerpts of the works discussed.