This issue of Performance Research examines a range of performative practices from both the historical and contemporary repertoire. Exploring systematic connections between ritual and theatre, On Ritual presents the work of contemporary artists and scholars on the role and meaning of ritual for theatrical purposes in the late 20th Century. The contributors look at ritualism in the intersices of painting, music and theatre, the role of rituals for personal and social identity, and the antithesis of healing rituals and rituals of death.