It is said that the two most absorbing subjects are Sex and Death. Certainly, Sex sells, as evidenced on the stage from eighteenth century restoration comedy through 70’s Whitehall farces right upto a variety of modern genres. What about Death? By itself, it is as a melodramatic subject. An 80’s West End production entitled ‘The Undertaking’ with a star-studded cast including Kenneth Williams, closed after a short run essentially because the play unsuccessfully tried to be a comedy centred around death and very little else. Of course, ghost stories have always abounded, with derivative tangents such as vampires and zombies being enduringly popular (a genre that entered with my play ‘Vampire’). This though is trying to side step the issue of death itself. There is another certain kind of play that effectively transcends rather than avoids death, taking the audience into the realm of metaphysical, very much humanising the afterlife.
A good example of the kind of play I’m thinking of is Noel Coward’s perennially popular ‘Blythe Spirit’ where a widower’s deceased wife comes back to compete against his new fling for attention. There is too much humanity in the play to dismiss it as a ghost story, surely accounting for its enduring success. Other examples of the genre involve demons or angels taking on human form. This device has often appeared in movies such as ‘Angel on my shoulder’, ‘Meet Joe Black’, ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ and ‘Michael’ amongst many others.
There are numerous stage takes on this concept such as the 1938 musical comedy ‘I married an Angel’ by Rogers and Hart (later made into a movie). In this story, a man does quite literally marry an angel who steadily becomes increasingly human. One of the most celebrated examples is surely J.B Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’, in which the real identity of the mysterious Inspector Goole, is never explained but he is widely seen as some kind of avenging angel, shining a light on the various dis-doings of a high-society family. A big budget production continues to tour whilst the play remains a favourite with amateur theatres.
My own venture into this intriguing genre is ‘Angels AWOL’, published by Stage Scripts, where two Angels each find themselves watching over someone in a coma. This provides an opportunity to adopt take on their charge’s identities, giving themselves an extended holiday from their heavenly duties but being ‘human’ is not quite as easy as they thought it would be.
Theatre gives wonderful opportunities for exploring metaphysical concepts, whether or not we believe in them. Sometimes, it’s enough just to explore the possibilities. Think of Samuel Becket’s ‘Waiting for Godot’, voted ‘The most significant English-language play of the 20th century’. This brilliant work is open to so many interpretations but it is the unseen, unexplained nature of ‘Godot’ that is the key to the story. Many attach a spiritual interpretation to ‘Waiting for Godot’ and whilst Godot is never seen neither is he shown to not exist. At the end of the play, the protagonists are still ‘Waiting for Godot’, which, depending on your perspective, is a sign of hope or despair. What could more exemplify the pull and intrigue of the metaphysical?