Since ancient times, theatre has been an intersection of the natural and supernatural. In Classical Greece, for example, the theatre stage was regarded as a liminal space representing the human realm, located in between the upper world of the immortal gods and the underworld of the dead. Preoccupation with the supernatural invading into the human realm, culminating in the mechanism of Deus ex Machina (the god in the machine), permeated Medieval theatre and later Elizabethan theatre, when the supernatural was conceived as a natural part of human life. In modern theatre. In modern theatre, representations of the supernatural take a different course and serve mainly to mark the human subconscious dimensions. Machine has replaced God, who is represented on stage through his absence (in Beckett) or through his presence as a marginal character (in Hanoch Levin).

In the course, we will examine various representations of the supernatural in ancient and modern dramas, and reflect on how playwrights use these representations in order to shed critical light on the human-natural realm. As it turns out, the supernatural entities are driven by human-like impulses and feelings, and their interference with the plot exposes irrational dimensions in human existence.