Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Why the absence?


I have been absent without leave. I apologise for the absence.  It has been a bit of time between posts. 


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.
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?
The father in the play is not only stalked by death but by conflict with his daughter.

Followers