I have been absent without leave. I apologise for the absence. It has been a bit of time between posts.
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| Director, Julie Edwardson (centre) takes rehearsal with the father, Richard and daughter Kat |
Unforgiveable really but here is my paltry excuse. I feel bad for my loyal and loved bloggers.
Apart from marking essays, I am engaged in a play about
death. You may recall a play reading was
conducted in February and the full season will be run in September. Here are some photos of the cast in rehearsal
and in a cemetery. The play uses poetry
and music to elucidate the issues of death.
Harry is dying, his wife has just died and he is desperate
to engage with his daughter Gracie, still damaged by her mum’s death. As Gracie
and Harry talk, their conversation is sprinkled by excerpts from Requiems by
Mozart, Verdi and Faure. Harry tries to tear Gracie from her screens to chat to
her about death through the poem, Thomas Gray’s “Elegy written in a Country
Churchyard” completed in 1750. He employs Dorothy Gray, Tom’s mum (herself
dead 250 years) to assist. Together they unlock the nature of death for Gracie
and for himself.
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| Death stalks the father and daughter in Death by Elegy. |
The Requiems will be sung by a quartet of Emotionworks
singers. Directed by Julie Edwardson,
this production will be performed in the St Kilda Uniting Church (near the
corner of Chapel and Carlisle Sts) in September. I will provide you with more propaganda
closer to the event. That is something
you can believe. Self promotion is a bit
of a personal weakness as you all know.
In the interim, you may like to re-start a conversation on
the issue of death.
Can atheism ever console those in grief or fearful of their
own inevitable death?
Can atheism ever match the ritual and music of the Church?
Are the godless forever in fear or can they be strong in the
face of the inevitable?
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| The father in the play is not only stalked by death but by conflict with his daughter. |
