You know you’re in for a wild night at the Arcola Theatre when one of the content warnings is ‘Mentions of necrophilia’. And rest assured, this Sergio Blanco and Daniel Goldman collaboration is just that. When You Pass Over My Tomb is an ambitious and inventive exploration of death and what the body offers when it no longer lives and breathes.
An ambitious and inventive exploration of death and what the body offers when it no longer lives and breathes
The play opens with the three actors introducing themselves by their actual name: Al Nedjari, Charlie MacGechan and Danny Scheinmann. They address us directly, with no formal start to the play; they break the fourth wall not only with us but also with the lighting and sound technician, making us feel like this is an experience that we’re all actively participating in; until our actors tell us how they themselves died and where they are currently buried. We hear tales of illness and shark attacks, and as the audience we’re in the dark again wondering, “Are you playing yourself or a version of yourself? How much can I believe?” I spent a lot of this play in the dark, feeling my way through it, not sure how I was expected to feel and at times not able to follow what was going on. Having said that, it was an exciting headspace to be in, because regardless of my uncertainty, I was intrigued throughout.
The actors slip in and out of their characters during the show. We mainly follow Nedjari playing the ghost of Sergio, who walks us through his experience of securing an assisted suicide with Dr Goodwin in order to give his body to a necrophiliac named Khaled, whom he deeply desires (played by Scheinmann and MacGechan, respectively). The actors use the in-the-round staging to their advantage, indulging in their close proximity to the audience by sitting in amongst us, handing out props and asking questions. For a play that is text heavy, the active staging keeps it alive and the mixed media use of a video camera projected onto the TV above the grass-carpeted stage offers us plenty to hold our attention throughout the quick paced, dense chunks of writing.
There are mentions of classic literature, known cases of necrophilia, and also a few tongue in cheek references to the playwright's previous work. The play gives us the literal image of someone giving their body to another after death, for it to be intimately enjoyed for as long as it is able to be. It made me wonder if it may be asking us about what we leave behind when we’re gone, what is the mark we leave on the world. Do we leave behind a family who mourns us? Or the art we created that will live on forever? Or in this play’s more controversial case, skin and bone that has been prepared with care and offered with love.
