Scenes from a Wake

Bordering on the surreal, Scenes from a Wake is a comedy set in a funeral parlor, though it is not particularly “about” the awkwardness of death or a collection of funeral humor. The play continually returns to the question of how we live our lives – what we find our most compelling focus – with the specter of death (in this case an actual corpse) hovering in the background. Drawing on elements from several myths, including “Finnegan’s Wake” and the Lotus Eaters the action spans twenty-four hours in the viewing room at a funeral parlor. We learn something about the life of the deceased. But, the majority of the play focuses on the concerns of the living – the search for escape, trying to cope with grief or using it as a status symbol, trying to find love or merely coming to terms with the idea of death.