Photos from the premiere of the play about Marina Abramović's life

Spider-Man, Heaven's Gate and The English Patient star Willem Dafoe performed with Marina Abramović in the play about the Serbian-born performance artist's life. The premiere for The Life and Death of Marina Abramović at the Manchester International Festival opened to a packed audience that included the design duo Viktor & Rolf. The pair tweeted: 'Check it out if you can, it will travel: it's gr8.' 

Director Robert Wilson, known for his exploration of time and space on stage, decided not to recreate Abramović’s more familiar performances, but to focus on intimate life-stories. Playing with audience expectations, Abramović’s is cast in the role of her disciplinarian mother, while 12 different performers wearing latex masks play the artist, and Dafoe the narrator. 

The Life and Death of Marina Abramović runs for a total of 6 performances (until 16 July) during the Manchester International Festival.