Dead Living

The central premise of the play is that there is an afterlife which everyone goes to after they die. Not a Heaven or Hell, but another life. They stay in this world for as long as there is someone alive who knew them and remembers them, so it can be anything up to sixty or seventy years. Once the last person who knew them dies they disappear from the afterlife and presumably move on somewhere else. Now a plague has begun to sweep across the world, killing everyone, which means that everyone in the afterlife is at risk if there is nobody left alive to remember them.

The play is set in both this life and the afterlife, often at the same time on different parts of the stage. One theory about the plague is that it is caused by impure water. In the Antarctic two explorers, Plunket and Joyce, are attempting to find pure ice which will be mined and transported around the world. In the afterlife we meet Luka, who spends much of his time interviewing new arrivals so that he can publish news about what’s been happening in the real world. From these new arrivals he learns about the plague.

The cast of three play all the parts, which involves a great deal of rushing around backstage and rapid changing of character. They all perform well in and interesting and enjoyable production.

Reviews by Alan Chorley

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The Blurb

When we die we go into a parallel life in the land of the dead. But when a plague begins to wipe out the living, both worlds are threatened. Superb physical theatre. From the novel by Kevin Brockmeier.

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