The End of Death, by prolific playwright Janet S. Tiger, explores a long life life as long as you want to live while still retaining your chosen age. Director Diane Shea has a difficult job with 11 actors and times shifts that go back to a cave family, in more or less current day, and a future world.
Or is it just the frustrations of playwright Joanne, Teresa Beckwith, trying to get a script that works for her and, hopefully, for her future audiences. She communicates with The Visitor, Jonathan Dunn-Rankin, who represents a much more advanced civilization capable of time travel. It doesn't help Joanne that she is the only one who can see The Visitor. Her husband Don, played by Steve Rowe, and her two children - whom we meet as very young kids and adults Tillie and Arthur (Lynne Goodman and Joseph Baker) cannot.
The Visitor (TV) [You know that has to be intentional!] has his own agenda. He has lived a good existence of a few thousand years and wants to call it a life. His parents, played by Brandon Cano and Shara Free, are naturally concerned about why he'd want to terminate his life when he's only a few thousand years old. The conflict is a typical parent rant to an adult child. Nothing has changed in the future.
Back in contemporary time, our playwright is having her own troubles. The script is not going right. Every time it is performed in real time by her family, it is flawed. She takes her frustration out on her family, TV, and directly to the audience. This, alas, is a plight of any artist trying to create a moment of perfection. It just doesn't come easy. She even has impassioned dialogue with TV.
While in the future, TV is busy with his big party. No, not a death party and not a birthday party, just a celebration. The lovely Thelma and Louise, played by the lovely Pamela Wistrom and Ilo Neukam, provide for some amusing moments. Other guests pop in and out and even dance about the audience, making us a part of the festivities. We also meet the cave family a couple of times.
Rob Conway and Jake Mogin, as well as a few of the other actors are playing dual roles. These two are TV's friends. Incidentally, the future family's friends include a couple of types reminiscent of some Saturday morning characters on current futuristic television shows.
The End of Death is definitely a work in progress. The playwright has been diligently making changes and cutting pieces. At just over two hours, with intermission, it is a bit too long. As much as I like the short and early cavemen sequence, it does not move an interesting story. The added video gave a necessary high-tech feel to the play, but I got lost in the characters (eleven actors playing multiple parts).
The playwright has nicely tied up the many loose ends. But I wish she hadn't. The End of Death ends up with too many endings rather than one significant ending that lets the other chips fall where they may. The mixed cast gives some really fine performances a difficult job when the script is being changed every week. But that's what a play in progress is all about.
Playwright Joanne is constantly confronted with problems of her own making. TV is of some help to her, but, at times, the time warping detracts rather than adds to the story. There are so many poignant and funny bits that can be even further connected to each other; I have high hopes for the final play.
