ABSTRACT
Representations of the end of the world gain currency in moments of social crisis. But such representations are more often the product of political strategies than of uncontrolled social anxieties. This chapter refers on early colonial religious drama in Mexico and on the Shi’ite ritual performances of Ta’ziyeh in order to highlight the extent to which theatrical characterisations and representations of the end of times, its agents, the afterlife, and the powers that control them may get weaponised on the grounds of creating a sense of apocalyptic agency. That agency is likely to be sustained by a pretence of political and religious power. As such, it is never quite pure – never absolute. Who are the self-proclaimed owners of the end of times and of the final judgement? How are those ends being enacted and contested (or not) in theatre and performance?
