Never meet your heroes; you may just have to write their suicide note.
Bennie, played by Eleanor Shaw, is a ghostwriter residing in corporate limbo tasked with penning suicide letters for the soon to be deceased. With all the trappings of a dead end job and her immortal residence on the line, the pressure is on to produce a suicide letter for the ages. Copy and paste will not cut it any longer and the threat of hell is looming.
This short and well-acted play takes a significant leap in creativity toeing the line between satire and drama. Its punchy, funny and sad in a nervous chuckle sort of way. Struggling with the questions, what makes a life well lived, and did Anthony Bourdain figure it out, this piece jumped right into the thick of matters of life and death.
Bennie, it appears, has seen it all. From pedophiles to desperate repeat callers, she is prepared to provide something for the soon to pass that is full of clarity, motivation, heart and flair. In a place that has “no stories here, just endings,” she attempts to piece together what her story was and what it all meant. A head scratching production that develops quickly and succinctly, the audience are invited into the narrative immediately as Bennie sits in the audience on a break before the show begins.
An office set with nihilistic posters populates the center of the room, and the audience is invited to leave a note on the set following the performance. The only glaringly obvious issue with the piece is the staging. As it is performed mostly sat, the computer monitor completely obstructs stage left audience members leaving audience craning or enjoying a bit of, mostly, audio theatre. Secondarily, there is room for further development of the piece in a full two act production. Given the limitations of the Fringe, the piece achieves its dramaturgical goals, but with a bit more time this piece could develop into something that leaves its own legacy.
Medium Dead is on at 16:50 at Zoo Playground – Playground 2 and lasts one hour.